[StBernard] Involuntary Demolition

[Westley Annis]

A friend of mine had her home demoed last month even though she was listed
compliant with ms. Faith in the permits office. AFter speaking to a number
of attorneys, she is being advised to file a federal lawsuit, based on the
takings clause, and that these postings or listings in the paper (especially
the voice as opposed to the St. B News or Times pic which are more widely
circulated and accessible) wouldn't hold up as proper notification. The
paper would be only a last resort when owners couldn't be found after proof
of mailings were not answered. And considering she had been dealing with Ms.
Faith, who had current numbers on her, the paper thing may not hold up.
While I understand everyone's want and need to have progress, people's
property is being taken. In my friend's case, her house (and I say this
laughing) only had 3 feet of water. Much of this should be held off until
the roadhome program has finished dispersing money, then deadlines could be
enacted . Right now how do you hold people accountable when we don't have
any other recourse but to wait on that. And in our case, we can't start
contruction until our home is demoed (which we signed up for over 8 months
ago and yet it still sits there). With this unprecedented situation, our
leaders would ant to tred slowly.

Wendy H