The Public Housing Movement Chooses Kawana Jasper and Sam Jackson

To: Catherine Bishop, National Housing Law Project, Organizer of January 20, 2010 key meeting with the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD on the fate of Public Housing

The New Orleans Public Housing Movement Wants Our Voices Represented

YES TO KAWANA JASPER AND SAM JACKSON
NO TO SELLOUTS CYNTHIA WIGGINS AND CONSTANCE HAYNES

(Supporters: Call/email Catherine Bishop at (510) 251-9400 cbishop@nhlp.org
in support of our demands; Also contact NOLAC housing lawyer Laura Tuggle, who is on the local organizing committee, to stop her support of Wiggins and Haynes-- latuggle@nolac.org)

Demand: We demand that two True Defenders of New Orleans Public Housing, Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper, represent the New Orleans Public Housing movement at the meeting in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2010. We OPPOSE the inclusion of Cynthia Wiggins and Constance Haynes in the delegation. Wiggins and Haynes both SUPPORTED the criminal destruction of Public Housing in Post-Katrina New Orleans, and Wiggins, under the guise of “Resident management” has a financial interest in the further privatization of public housing through the so-called ‘project basing’ plan HUD will float at the Jan. 20 meeting.

Ms. Bishop, as you have stated in a recent email “we at NHLP would have the final say as to who would attend and take full responsibility for which tenants are attending this meeting.” Therefore we are demanding that you listen to the voices of the Public Housing movement in New Orleans, and include those that will convey our positions, and not those UNREPRESENTATIVE voices that have worked to destroy Public Housing.

Who Are Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper?

Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper have been at the forefront of the Public Housing movement. They have worked tirelessly, even going to jail, for their commitment to defend Public Housing in post-Katrina New Orleans. The Public Housing movement is confident they will bring the MOVEMENTS message to the January 20th meeting, which are the following: We do not want to lose even one more unit of Public Housing. We reject the plan cooked up by recently appointed HUD staffer Barbara Sard to privatize public housing through her “project basing” scheme.

http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2009/HUDNo.09-140

We want a commitment that ALL the 800+ units at the Iberville Public Housing development remain as Public Housing, where people pay 30% of their income for rent and utilities. We want the currently empty units to be immediately repaired and made available to the thousands of people now on the waiting list in city, where the homeless population has doubled since hurricane Katrina. We demand real enforcement of HUD’s section 3 rules that gives preference to local low wage workers on any HUD funded construction—a rule currently being flagrantly violated.

Furthermore we demand not only the defense of the Public Housing we have, but we call for a massive expansion. The expansion of Public Housing should be part of a larger Public Works initiative, with direct government employment, that would rebuild our public sector, from schools, to housing, to hospitals, with workers being paid prevailing wage.

Who is Cynthia Wiggins?

In contrast to Jackson and Jasper, Cynthia Wiggins is a supporter of the destruction of Public Housing. Ms Wiggins never once provided support for the movement to defend public housing in post-Katrina New Orleans. Rather she and her organization--the City Wide tenants Association, whose terms have all expired--spoke out in support of demolishing Public Housing, including at the infamous December 20, 2007 New Orleans city council meeting. At this infamous meeting, N.O. cops, on orders from the city council, beat, tasered and arrested people for daring to attend the meeting and register their objections to the internationally recognized crime of demolishing public housing in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Ms. Wiggins, and the National Association of Resident Management Corporations, of which she has been president, is a long time defender of privatizing public housing. Wiggins and other managers make money by turning over management to their corporations, and they want more of it. As can be seen below from records obtained from the Louisiana Secretary of State office, Wiggins has set up a series of for-profit and ‘non-profit’ corporations as part of her business operation managing public housing. We demand that she come clean on how much profit she has made from her entire corporate portfolio.

Therefore, considering how well she has done from privatization, it is no wonder that Wiggins paid homage to former HUD secretary Jack Kemp after his death last year, which was posted on the blog of the right wing Heritage Foundation. Kemp helped create the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing, out of which the monster known as HOPE VI was birthed. This program, as we all know, has driven literally millions of poor people, especially people of color, from their homes and neighborhoods through demolition and gentrification. While this caused great harm to rank and file residents, this program has helped create more profitable opportunities for ‘resident management corporations’ such as the ones Wiggins heads.
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/05/08/tributes-to-jack-kemp-a-man-above-men/

Seeing how Wiggins has made out very well financially from privatizing public housing, it is no wonder she wants to finish off what is left. In October 2009 interview with the Gambit newspaper, Wiggins stated. "The public housing that we knew is no more…There's a shifting that's taking place and it's from the perspective of personal responsibility. The government is getting out of all of this subsidizing, so at some point in time, if we don't do something to force people back into the workforce, what's going to happen is you're going to have folks who are homeless."
http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/PrintFriendly?oid=oid%3A63286

Clearly, Wiggins is on board with eliminating public housing, and yet she has been selected to represent the interests New Orleans Public Housing residents in Washington at this critical meeting! NO WAY.

NO TO WIGGINS! NO TO THE PROFITEERS OF PRIVATIZATION!

C3/Hands off Iberville
**************************************************
Below is a listing of the corporate affiliations of resident council member Cynthia Wiggins as provided by the Louisiana Secretary of State. She has thirteen corporate affiliations. This information is a matter of public record.

Director of "Guste Homes Lowrise Economic Development Corporation." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Director of "Metro-New Orleans Community Development Corporation." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Vice-President of "New Orleans Public Works, Inc." This is an inactive non-profit corporation.
Director of "Guste Homes Management Corporation." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Director of "Optimistic Healthcare, Inc." This is an inactive business corporation.
President of "Housing Authority of New Orleans Residents Loan Corporation." This is an inactive non-profit.
Member of "Clip'n'Clean," This is an inactive business corporation.
Vice President of "The Guste Low-Rise Resident Council." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Director of the "Guste Low-Rise Resident Council." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Agent of "Moms Against Violence." This is an inactive non-profit corporation.
Agent of "Metro-New Orleans Community Development Corporation." This is an active non-profit corporation.
Agent of "Guste Homes Resident Management Corporation." This is an active corporation.


Total Results: 16
Name
Affiliation
City
Detail
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “GUSTE HOMES LOWRISE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “METRO-NEW ORLEANS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Vice-President of “NEW ORLEANS WORKS, INC.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “GUSTE HOMES RESIDENT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “DEAR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION INC.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “OPTIMISTIC HOME HEALTH CARE, INC.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
President of “HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT LOAN CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Member of “CLIP - N - CLEAN L.L.C.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Vice-President of “THE GUSTE LOW-RISE RESIDENT COUNCIL”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Director of “THE GUSTE LOW-RISE RESIDENT COUNCIL”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Agent of “MOMS AGAINST VIOLENCE, INC.”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Agent of “METRO-NEW ORLEANS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]
WIGGINS, CYNTHIA
Agent of “GUSTE HOMES RESIDENT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION”
NEW ORLEANS
[Details]