[StBernard] St. Bernard authority usurped in battle over mixed-income apartments, parish president says

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard authority usurped in battle over mixed-income apartments, parish
president says

Published: Wednesday, March 02, 2011, 11:34 PM     Updated: Wednesday, March
02, 2011, 11:44 PM

 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune 

Buffeted by federal accusations of racial discrimination and pressure to
allow mixed-income apartments in Chalmette, St. Bernard Parish President
Craig Taffaro urged the parish council to join him in an all-out stand
against the "federal agenda" imposed on the citizens and reject "an
inappropriate insertion into our community."

In response to Taffaro's statements, the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development may make good on its threat to revoke all the parish's
federal funding and transfer the matter on to the Department of Justice. HUD
officials are expected to hunker down Thursday and determine how to move
forward, according to Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
officials who participated in telephone negotiations that allegedly broke
down on Wednesday.

HUD, a federal judge and the New Orleans fair housing center have accused
the parish of purposely discriminating against African-Americans by blocking
Provident Realty Advisors' development of a 288-unit, mixed-income housing
development, and enacting zoning laws that drastically restrict multifamily
housing zoning and the application process for the rental, lease and loan of
single-family homes.

Parish councilmen had told HUD that by March 7 they'd rescind the two
ordinances that curtailed parish housing choice. On Tuesday, at a raucous
Parish Council meeting that pushed nearly to midnight, the council did end
up introducing two ordinances to do just that, but the actual repeals cannot
occur until April 5.

Before the vote to introduce the ordinance, Taffaro asked the Parish Council
to stand with him against a federal government he characterized as
inappropriately attempting to circumvent the parish's local decision-making
authority. He suggested the parish issued building permits for the apartment
project under federal threats to withhold money designated for the
storm-ravaged parish. He said the parish should review those permits with
more scrutiny. And, he suggested that the parish should seek funding to
"purchase the financial interests of Provident Realty...'' He did not
elaborate.

Taffaro labeled it "the morally right position" and likened himself to
historical figures in his fight for "the right to govern ourselves within
the constitutional framework of the United States of America."

He said his statements were "not meant to incite or placate but rather to
clarify that the importance of the place in which we stand today cannot be
dismissed as simply an agenda of a social, political, economic, or otherwise
nature. This place is an expression of a human nature."

"Our stand has been challenged, mostly by outside interests. Our stand has
been ridiculed, mostly by liberal media. And our stand has been eroded
entirely by federal pressure," he later said.

Councilmen expressed similar sentiments, but most explained that their hands
were tied because they feared the loss of federal money would be more
detrimental to the parish than the apartments.

Earlier this year, HUD's Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity enforcement
division filed a "housing discrimination complaint" against the parish that
said the change in zoning laws in 2009 "have limited or will limit the
development and occupancy of rental housing and affordable housing in the
Parish and were undertaken with the intent and effect of discriminating
based on race."

It says the ordinances continue "a course of conduct since Hurricane Katrina
to deny and withhold real property based on race and interfere with the
rights of persons to live in the New Orleans area free from unlawful
discrimination."

Hundreds of residents jam-packed the council chambers on Tuesday, many of
whom resembled stop signs in their red shirts worn to show their unified
desire to stop the construction of four, 72-unit mixed-income apartments in
Chalmette.

They emphatically explained that they are not racists and that their
opposition to such housing is therefore not discriminatory.

Framing the issue in line with Taffaro's later remarks, they insisted that
the federal government was clumsily intruding on local interests. Others
stated they simply wished to protect the working man, still recovering from
Katrina, fighting to keep his neighborhood safe and real estate values
stable.

Taffaro actually attempted to flip the table entirely, saying it is the
federal government, not the parish, that is perpetuating inequality.

"It is disturbing that those who oppose our will to govern and recover our
community utilize the veil of equality to perpetuate the very pattern of
economic oppression that exists within the contexts of the developments in
question," he said.

And on Wednesday evening, in light of Taffaro's comments, the Greater New
Orleans Fair Housing Action Center was considering filing a restraining
order barring the parish from further interfering with the construction of
the apartments.

The federal scrutiny on purported racial segregation in St. Bernard began
soon after Katrina, when about 80 percent of the parish's housing stock was
severely damaged and the council began passing laws to direct regrowth.

Then-councilman Taffaro introduced a "blood relative" ordinance that
restricted rentals by only allowing the rental or occupancy of single-family
residences to anyone other than a blood relative - family members "related
by blood within the first, second or third direct ascending or descending
generation" - without first obtaining a permit. Several months earlier,
Taffaro had introduced a moratorium on multifamily housing that discussed
the need to maintain "quality of life issues."

Echoing themes repeated on Tuesday, that blood-relative ordinance referred
to "family values," maintaining "integrity and stability," and "securing for
the community the blessings of quiet enjoyment of their pre-existing
neighborhoods."

Both ordinances ended up passing, and raised the ire of HUD and local fair
housing advocates at the time.

Based on the two Taffaro-introduced ordinances, U.S. District Judge Ginger
Berrigan issued a three-year federal consent decree barring St. Bernard from
further violating the Fair Housing Act.

Soon after Berrigan's consent order, a developer entered the stage
interested in building the four 72-unit apartments. And as officials
repeatedly acted to prevent their development, Berrigan in 2009 issued
several rulings stating such actions segregated black people, violated the
earlier consent order and therefore were in contempt of court.

As a result, the parish has been forced to pay about $1.5 million, not
including its own attorney fees.

In the midst of her contempt of court rulings, St. Bernard was introducing
the two ordinances that have more recently caused HUD's consternation.

The sweeping zoning ordinance changes disallowed multifamily housing as a
permitted use in areas zoned A-1, C-1, C-2, and I-1 and eliminated RO
zoning, which also had allowed multifamily. Now multifamily housing is only
permitted in R-3 zoning areas, and through types of Planned Unit
Developments that require special approval.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Berrigan filed an order stating that because
it appears "contemptuous behavior" of the parish is continuing, that the
consent decree -- which was set to expire on Sunday -- will now be extended
through Dec. 31.