Can HANO Director Gilmore be taken on his word?

(Below is an email from journalist Katy Reckdahl responding to my earlier post about her article on New Orelans Public Housing. Following the email is my response to HANO director Gilmore's assurances regarding the fate of the Iberville Development).

From: kreckdahl@timespicayune.com [mailto:kreckdahl@timespicayune.com]
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 5:37 PM
Subject: RE: Open Letter to Katy Reckdahl, Laura Tuggle and Tracie Washington

Jay:

Just FYI. Mr. Gilmore said at the last HANO meeting that he has been told nothing about the Iberville being demolished and that he thinks to do so would be a mistake. One of the residents that I think is still on your People's Committee, Sharon Jasper, was at that meeting and hugged Gilmore at the end of it.


Katy,

Thanks for responding.

I, as much as anyone, would like to take Mr. Gilmore--of Gilmore Kean LLC, whose company is making money from the privatization of HANO management, Mr Gilmore of the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing (1989-1992) infamy, from which emerged the HOPE VI public housing demolition scheme, the Mr Gilmore that was appointed by the Obama administration which completed the demolition of the Lafitte development--on his word.

Yet, the reassuring WORDS allegedly uttered by Mr. Gilmore guaranteeing the continued existence of Iberville as a Public Housing development are contradicted the by the continuing ACTIONS of the agency he heads:

1. HANO/HUD's closure of vacated apartments continues at Iberville.

2. HANO/HUD continues to prioritize the distribution of section 8 vouchers to existing residents at Iberville, while there is a huge waiting list of families with no housing assistance. When Iberville residents take the section 8 voucher HANO contractors then place metal plates on these apartments and do not reopen them to any of thousands of families now on the waiting list for a public housing apartment.

3. Henry Charlot Jr, from the Downtown development district continues as head of the HANO appointed Iberville advisory committee, despite the DDD's long stated aim of destroying Iberville as PUBLIC HOUSING. The IAC continues to hold only closed doors meetings prohibiting members of the public from attending.

4. The stimulus money has been used mainly to place 'crime cameras' at Iberville, rather than make repairs.

5. HUD's recently appointed HANO advisory board is filled with players that have supported demolition and privatization of public Housing. They range from representatives of the Greater new Orleans Foundations, to the office of Mayor Nagin. Maybe the most objectionable is the ostensible tenant representative, Cynthia Wiggins, who has made a tidy sum providing support for the demolition of public housing and driving public housing resident from their homes. Wiggins , in her latest move, has joined hands with the notorious racist, poor-people hater, Stacey Head, in calling for the eviction of public housing residents that cannot find job--at a time when workers, especially Black Workers, are now facing Depression era levels of unemployment (see Gambit, October 19, 2009, 'work and Home')

Until these and other glaring contradictions are addressed, Mr Gilmore's reassurances will be greeted with healthy and warranted skepticism.

Investigating these contradictions, I believe, would be the basis of an excellent investigative piece. If only we could get it by the censors at the Times Picayune, who have been cheerleaders of public housing demolition, and, in effect, class and racial cleansing.

HANO advisory board members are:
John Alford, principal at Langston Hughes Academy; Rev. D.R. Berryhill, Sr. of First Zion Baptist Church; Dr. Karen DeSalvo, Tulane University School of Medicine's vice-dean of community affairs and health policy; Martin Gutierrez, who heads up neighborhood and community services at Catholic Charities; Nick Harris, who directs the Dillard University Community Development Corp.; Michael Hecht, president of Greater New Orleans, Inc.; Ellen Lee, senior vice president of programs at the Greater New Orleans Foundation; Maggie Merrill, director of policy for the city of New Orleans; U.S. Congressman Joseph Cao's deputy chief of staff Rosalind Peychaud, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu's regional manager, LaVerne Saulny; Laura Tuggle, who heads up housing law at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services; Tracie Washington, managing director of the Louisiana Justice Institute; and Cynthia Wiggins, head of the Guste Home Resident Management Corporation.

Jay Arena
Hands off Iberville