[StBernard] Discouraged

[Westley Annis]

Lisa,  This happened to my house in Lexington place also.  I mean the broken
windows, not the paint.  It's very distrubing.  Someone threw bricks through
my windows. One or two windows were broken by the storm but now they are all
busted out.  Someone tried to start a fire in another one of our properties.

Laurie



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>

>I have only posted an email to this group once in the past, but after 

>visiting my home in Lexington this afternoon I felt compelled to 

>express my opinion on the "blighted housing" issue.  My house is 

>gutted, by the grace of the wonderful volunteers.  However, it still 

>sits with debris from the surrounding houses as well as some of my own.  

>I am a single mother, who spent a great deal of time, with only my mother

helping me, digging and

>gutting my house before any volunteers ever arrived.   The inside of my

>house was basically empty except for the mud and sheetrock.  The task 

>of removing the rest of the debris from my yard, shed & garage is 

>extremely overwhelming to me.  However, what disturbs me more is the 

>vandalism that I discovered today.  After being gutted and cleaned up, 

>my house was left with only one broken window in the front of my house, 

>and it was a window broken by me during my attempt to clean out my 

>house.  Today I discovered many glass beer bottles scattered in front 

>of my house.  Those beer bottles were used to beat out the remaining 

>windows in the front of my home.  I spoke to my neighbor who is living 

>in a fema trailer across the street.  He told me that he just recently 

>had paint balls shot at the front of his house and eggs thrown all over 

>his van......and he is living there.  Now I have to spend money to 

>replace windows broken by vandals.....money that I don't have......and 

>for what?????  Who will guarantee that they will not be broken again?  

>The parish wants all the homes to be brought into "compliance" by 

>August 29th with windows fixed and doors replaced, but can anybody 

>insure that it will not be done in vain????  My plan was to gut and 

>clean out my property, bring it into compliance and maintain it until I 

>could afford to rebuild it.....but, I cannot afford to keep replacing 

>windows, etc. after vandals destroy it.  So, what should I do now????

>

>Lisa LaHoste

>