Take Action NOW to Defend Sharon Jasper, Free Speech, and Public Housing

Public Housing activist and human rights leader Sharon Jasper is facing political repression --an attack that threatens the free speech rights of us all. On May 30, 2010 Ms. Jasper participated in a non-violent protest at the former St Bernard public housing development, renamed “Columbia Parc”, to denounce the exclusion of former residents. The protest was part of the nationally coordinated “take back the Land” actions. The following week a NOPD SWAT team arrested her at her home, charging her with “battery”--totally unsubstantiated and baseless---against a Columbia Parc employee during the May 30th protest. Then, on July 9th, she received a letter from the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) revoking her section 8 housing voucher because of the battery charge. As part of the unconstitutional “one strike” law, passed under the Clinton administration, public housing residents can be evicted for being charged--not convicted--of a crime!

This attempt to evict Ms Jasper is a clear cut case of political repression. The phony “battery” charge and eviction order are designed to silence not only Ms. Jasper but the larger struggle against the real estate sharks and privatizers scheming to grab valuable land and carry out ethnic cleansing in New Orleans an across the country. Very powerful forces are behind the attack on Sharon Jasper. The partner of Columbia Residential in their redevelopment of the former St Bernard public housing community is an outfit called the, “Bayou District”, with, among others, former president George H.W. Bush, and influential local “venture capitalist” Gary Solomon sitting on the board. In addition, the Columbia Parc development is backed by the so-called “Purpose Built Communities”, with billionaire Warren Buffett, hedge fund manager Julian Robertson, and real estate shark Thomas Cousins being major investors. These capitalists identify valuable public housing proprieties as “emerging markets”, and activists like Sharon Jasper stand in the way of these vultures cashing in. We can’t let them get away with this crime.
For more information call C3/Hands Off Iberville at 504-520-9521

Call and/or Fax these officials and demand that the charges and eviction order be dropped against Sharon Jasper
· Columbia residential--Noel Khalil, CEO--(404) 874-5000, x111; Fax (404) 874-0999
http://www.columbiares.com/about/principals.html

· Bayou District--Gerard Barousse, Jr., Chairman, (504) 272-0307 Fax: (504) 523-1704
http://bayoudistrictfoundation.org/

· Purpose Built Communities--Charles Knapp, President, (404) 591-1400, email: interest@purposebuiltcommunities.org
http://www.purposebuiltcommunities.org/network-members/overview.html

· Housing Authority of New Orleans--David Gilmore, Executive Director, (504) 670-3300
http://www.hano.org/

IBERVILLE SPEAKOUT ON THE BP OIL SPILL

The BP Oil Spill is a New Orleans problem!

IBERVILLE SPEAKOUT ON THE BP OIL SPILL.

The arrival of tar balls in Lake Pontchartain makes clear that the BP oil spill is reaching New Orleans. What impact will the oil spill have on the health and economic well being of New Orleanians? What can low-income New Orleanians do to avoid being exploited Katrina style by those forces who treat every catastrophe as another opportunity to rip off the poor? These are questions that Iberville residents and other low-income New Orleanians need to address and will be addressed at the Iberville Speakout On The BP Oil Spill.

You are invited and encouraged to attend and participate in the speakout below.


IBERVILLE SPEAKOUT ON THE BP OIL SPILL
6PM THURSDAY, JULY 15TH
IBERVILLE COURT(Near Basketball Court)
IBERVILLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
Free and open to all.

For additional information call (504) 587-0080
Sponsors: Iberville residents and C3/Hands Off Iberville

All Out to Defend New Orleans Public Housing Activist Sharon Jasper

All Out to Defend New Orleans Public Housing Activist Sharon Jasper

Stop Political Repression Unleashed by
HANO/Columbia Residential/Bayou District

Attend meeting and/or make calls (see info below)
HANO Board Meeting
4100 Tour St.
(near corner of Elysian Fields and Gentilly)
9:30 AM—Rally
10 AM—Board Meeting

Public Housing activist and human rights leader Sharon Jasper is facing political repression because of her defense of New Orleans public housing and the right of return. On May 30, 2010 Ms. Jasper participated in a non-violent protest at the former St Bernard public housing development, renamed “Columbia Parc”, to denounce the exclusion of former residents. The protest was part of the nationally coordinated “take back the Land” actions. The following week a NOPD SWAT team arrested her at her home, charging her with “battery”--totally unsubstantiated and baseless---against a Columbia Parc employee during the May 30th protest.
Then, on July 9th, she received a letter from the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) revoking her section 8 housing voucher because of the battery charge. As part of the unconstitutional “one strike” law, passed under the Clinton administration, public housing residents can be evicted for being charged--not convicted--of a crime!

This attempt to evict Ms Jasper is a clear cut case of political repression. The phony “battery” charge and eviction order are designed to silence not only Ms. Jasper but the larger struggle against the real estate sharks and privatizers scheming to grab valuable land and carry out ethnic cleansing in New Orleans an across the country. Very powerful forces are behind the attack on Sharon Jasper. The partner of Columbia Residential in their redevelopment of the former St Bernard public housing community is an outfit called the, “Bayou District”, with, among others, former president George HW Bush, and influential local “venture capitalist” Gary Solomon backing sitting on the board. In addition, the Columbia Parc development is backed by the so-called “Purpose Built Communities”, with billionaire Warren Buffett, hedge fund manager Julian Robertson, and real estate shark Thomas Cousins being major investors. These capitalists identify valuable public housing proprieties as “emerging markets”, and activists like Sharon Jasper stand in the way of these vultures cashing in.

For more information call 504-520-9521

Call and Fax these officials and demand that the charges and eviction order be dropped against Sharon Jasper

· Columbia residential--Noel Khalil, CEO--(404) 874-5000, ext. 111; Fax (404) 874-0999
http://www.columbiares.com/about/principals.html

· Bayou District--Gerard Barousse, Jr., Chairman, (504) 272-0307 Fax: (504) 523-1704
http://bayoudistrictfoundation.org/

· Purpose Built Communities--Charles Knapp, Pres,. (404) 591-1400, email: interest@purposebuiltcommunities.org
http://www.purposebuiltcommunities.org/network-members/overview.html

· Housing Authority of New Orleans--David Gilmore, Executive Director, (504) 670-3300
http://www.hano.org/

The Iberville Public Housing and Mass Public Works Movements Make Gains!

The Iberville Public Housing and Mass Public Works Movements Make Gains!

HANO Commits to Repairing All of Iberville--the Mass Movement Must Ensure This Happens

All Out to Defend Sharon Jasper at July 21 Court Appearance

In a major reversal, Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) administrator David Gilmore committed, at the agency’s June 29th hearing on their 2010-2011 annual plan, to repair and reopen all of the over 800 apartments at the Iberville public housing development. Only a few months ago Gilmore had said only 500 would be repaired and that there were “other [privatization] plans” for Iberville. Clearly this change of course is due to the determined and consistent resistance of C3/Hands Off Iberville and other forces that have denounced HANO’s demolition by neglect strategy, and the maneuvering of the Downtown Development District-led Iberville Advisory Committee to demolish and privatize Iberville.

Yet, we cannot be led into complacency by words and promises. Let us remember that in October 2001, after five years of demolishing several thousand units of public housing, then-HANO administrator Ben Bell reassured attendees at a board meeting that, “We have vowed not to build another HOPE VI project without the replacement of one-for-one public housing.” These words, of course, did not stop them from demolishing over 5,000 apartments after Katrina, with plans to only rebuild a handful. Indeed, HANO has more downsizing on the agenda. While committing to repairing all the units at Iberville, HANO’s 2010-2011 annual plan calls for selling-off 500 of the over 700 apartments in their scattered site portfolio, and includes no plans to rebuild the Florida development (that had been over 700 units), nor the Imperial Drive complex. With the two “tenant leaders” for these complexes--Diane Connerly (Florida) and Paula Taylor (Imperial Drive)--both enjoying HANO contracts for the “non-profit” agencies they head, you can be assured that these vetted leaders will not raise many objections.

The only power that can assure that the all the desperately needed units at Iberville are repaired, and that we win the equally needed mass public works plan, is a mass, independent, racially unified, militant, working class movement. The nucleus of that type of movement was present at HANO’s June 29th hearing on their annual plan. In attendance at a pre-meeting press conference and rally were C3/Hands Off Iberville members, Mike Howells, Michele Perez, Cody Marshall, Eloise Williams and Jay Arena, Pax Christi representative Paul Troyano, Joe and Katy Heeren-Mueller from the Catholic Worker house, Sam Jackson with May Day New Orleans, Endesha Juakali with Survivors Village, Public housing leaders Sharon, Kowana and Shannon Jasper, Rose Kennedy and a member of the housing group STAND.

At the rally and subsequent meting activists not only demanded the repairing of all the Iberville units, more public housing and section 8 vouchers, and the creation of a public works program, but also denounced the arrest of Sharon Jasper by a NOPD SWAT team on June 3rd at her home. The arrest and phony battery charge were in retaliation for Ms. Jasper’s heroic and continued defense of public housing and against police brutality. The week before her arrest she protested Columbian Parc’s (the former St Bernard development) continued exclusion of former residents. She also joined other community activists to as they picketed the NOPD’s central city station to denounce the reign of terror the cops have been carrying out in the area, one that has faced massive gentrification since hurricane Katrina. Ms. Jasper made it clear that, despite the repression, she will not be silenced and will continue the fight for justice in the city she loves.

Activists also gathered at the July 1, 2010 city council meeting to denounce Sharon Jasper’s arrest and the city’s plan to expand repression by building the only type of public housing they seem to support—prisons!

C3/Hands Off Iberville invites all friends of justice to join the fight for public housing and a massive public works program. All are encouraged to attend Sharon Jasper’s next court appearance, which will be on Wednesday, July 21 at 3 PM in Municipal Court, Court Room “D”. For more information call 504-520-9521.

Tell the Iberville Advisory Committee:Hands of Iberville! No to Privatization! No to land grabs!

Tell the Iberville Advisory Committee:

Hands of Iberville! No to Privatization! No to land grabs!

Reopen and repair all the public housing apartments at Iberville NOW!
Stop the Demolition by neglect strategy.

Expand don’t destroy Public Housing and other Public Services.
Public Works Now!

The Iberville Advisory Committee (IAC), a sham outfit set up by HANO and developers, will be holding a “community hearing” to “gather input” on “short and long term improvement to the Iberville” on Thursday, June 24. Their real agenda is to justify Iberville’s destruction as a public housing development. We must use this hearing to expose IAC’s real agenda and present a genuine peoples plan to defend and expand Iberville and public housing.

The chair of the IAC is Henry Charlot, an operative of the Downtown Development District (DDD). The DDD, and Charlot’s boss, Executive direct Kurt Weigle, have long sought to destroy Iberville. In a May 21, 2009 interview with WWL TV, reporter Susan Edwards found that from the perspective of “Kurt Weigle….redeveloping and demolishing Iberville removes a barrier to investment, opening the medical district up to more than just retail and residential possibilities.” Weigle told Edwards that “It (the demolition of Iberville) is going to have a positive effect on the medical district, the construction of the two hospitals…will have a much greater potential to attract investments around them.”

HANO’s appointment of a Weigle subordinate the IAC chair is a slap in the face of residents and non-residents alike who genuinely want Iberville to continue to be a source of affordable housing for low-income, working class New Orleanians.

Let your voice heard and demand that the hundreds of empty but badly needed public housing apartments at Iberville be repaired and reopened NOW!

Iberville Advisory Committee Community Meeting
Thursday, June 24
6 PM
St Jude Hall, 410 Basin St.


For more information contact C3/Hands Off Iberville, at 504-520-9521

Protecting homes and communities--Protest BP Oil Spill

COME TO N.O. HALLIBURTON TO PROTEST THE PERPETRATORS AND MISMANAGERS OF THE BP OIL SPILL.

More than fifty days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, Halliburton in New Orleans finds itself allowed to engage in business as usual in the major American city closest to the oil spill. The Halliburton office on Canal Street in the CBD has not, so far, been the scene of even a token attempt to put the spotlight on the pivotal role that this company has played in helping manufacture the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Halliburton was entrusted with the task of ensuring that the BOP of the Deepwater Horizon rig was sealed. Now faulty sealing of the Deepwater Horizon’s BOP is widely assumed to have been a major contributing factor to April 20th explosion that unleashed the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And this is exactly the type of work that allows Halliburton to profit enormously from oil industry activity in the Gulf.

Staging a very public protest at the site of the Halliburton office in the CBD sends the message to Halliburton, BP and the government that people in New Orleans are willing to directly confront, albeit peacefully, the worst corporate predators in our midsts. That we are pulling the welcome mat away from the corporate and political predators whose wretched handling of the crisis is resulting in ever greater encroachments on our welfare and the welfare of our neighbors. We are no longer willing to allow our righteous and healthy indignation to be funneled exclusively into dead-end corporate and government staged “public meetings” that are designed to imbue us with a feeling of powerlessness.

SO WE PROTEST!

4:30PM FRIDAY
JUNE 18, 2019
601 CANAL STREET
Bring signs, chants, friends and, most importantly, yourself.

Unity Based on a Common Interests and Principles

(Below is a post by Chicago Public Housing activist William JR Fleming regarding the debate on who should be included in the New Orleans Public Housing delegation that will meet with HUD on January 20, 2010 on the future of Public Housing. Following that is a response from C3/Hands Off Iberville member Jay Arena).

Hello All,
I am praying for all of us this just what the powers to be is counting on FOR US TO BE DIVIDED! As a resident of Cabrini Green in Chicago and all public housing in the world(my extended family) it hurts me to see what is happening in New Orleans my second home and where a lot of my family still resides. I am confident enough that Carol Steele and Cheryl Johnson can handle the Chicago representation so with that being said I am willing to give up my seat at the table if it would bring resolve to this crisis! WE ARE ALL WE GOT! WE SHOULD FIND COMMONALITY IN THE STRUGGLE FOR HOUSING! We cannot continue to have in-fighting I plea with My New Orleans Family Today is a New Day and Year lets Move Together on the Promise tomorrow brings and not live on the mistakes of yesterday.

Catherine I'm not singling you out but please see what is happening and understand your POWER in this situation to bring resolve!Which reminds me of MLK Jr. Quote

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.


Peace Love Respect and Unity

WILLIE J.R.FLEMING

(Jay Arena's response)

Principled Unity is What We Need--Based on Defending and Expanding Public Housing

Yes, JR, we need unity in the Public Housing Movement, but unity based on common interests and principles. We need unity based on the principle, on the common agreement, that we are for defending and expanding PUBLIC HOUSING—where housing is based on NEED, not profit. Unity not based on these principles does not make us stronger, but rather weaker.

The New Orleans Public Housing movement demands that Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper represent us at the January 20th meeting with HUD because they support our interests, our demands, to defend and expand Public Housing. The issue is not some childish concern that they been left out of a trip to Washington DC.

Cynthia Wiggins, in contrast, has another agenda. She—and other resident mangers-- has a material, an economic interest, in turning over public housing to private resident management. Wiggins is very clear about this. She does not want to defend the Iberville Public Housing development, for example. As she said, “The public housing that we knew is no more”. Instead, her interest is working with developers to “redevelop” public housing and ideally have them run by private resident managers like herself. And she wants to have as much power as possible, as any landlord would, over residents. As Wiggins told the Gambit weekly, she wants her and other resident managers to have the right to evict people that can’t find work—and this when we have the highest unemployment since the 1930s.

Wiggins has been clear that she will be representing not residents, but the class interests of the National Association of Resident Management Corporations, of which she belongs, at the January 20th meeting. Wiggins concern is how public housing can be “reformed” so she and her fellow mangers can make more money. Indeed, in a December 16th email , Wiggins placed as her number one concern to be addressed at the January 20th meeting at HUD was to overturn:

“* the $1m [$$1 milion] limit placed on resident own business during [doing] business with a PHA and the lack thereof”.

I have included as an attachment a slew of for-profit, and ‘non-profit’ businesses that Wiggins controls. Therefore her concerns about the money-making of her businesses—which she wants addressed at the January 20 meeting-- makes sense from her class position. But her interests and concerns are different from those of the Public Housing movement. WE need to be clear about that. If we gloss over those different economic interests in the name of some false unity, then we become weaker.

Therefore, JR, if you want to show solidarity with your friends and comrades in the New Orleans public housing movement DONT Give up your seat. Go to Washington and speak up for DEFENDING and EXPANDING Public Housing. To show solidarity demand that Catherine Bishop REMOVE Cynthia Wiggins as part of the New Orleans delegation-which was a conflict to begin with since Wiggins was a part of the selection committee, and picked herself! Instead of Wiggins, demand that Sam Jackson and Kawana Jasper, along with Stephanie Mingo, be our representatives.

C3/Hands Off Iberville