[StBernard] Housing tussle in St. Bernard continues

[Westley Annis]

Housing tussle in St. Bernard continues
By: Zoe Sullivan, Contributing Writer
Posted: Monday, March 7, 2011 2:26 pm

After Katrina, St. Bernard Parish issued an ordinance restricting rental of
single-family dwellings to people related by blood. It also put a moratorium
on the construction of multi-family dwellings. Both of these steps were
perceived as efforts to prevent African-Americans from moving into the
Parish, and the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) won
federal injunctions to overturn both of these policies.

Last week, the fight has heated up again. After St. Bernard Parish President
Craig Taffaro urged council members to "stand with him" while adopting a
"resolution to this challenge that incorporates the concerns of the federal
agencies while maintaining our ability to govern locally." The Parish
President's office told The Louisiana Weekly that the multi-family housing
development being planned for the parish is of a high-density type that
doesn't fit with the agency for Housing and Urban Development's current
policies. "They tore down high-density housing in New Orleans," the Parish
President's office said, questioning why similar housing would then be built
in St. Bernard.

A press release from the GNOFHAC said that the organization filed a
temporary restraining order against the parish because "St. Bernard Parish
officials clearly stated their intent to violate the Fair Housing Act and
the Consent Order by impeding the development of four mixed-income apartment
complexes."

GNOFHAC Executive Director James Perry comments, "We are profoundly
disappointed in Mr. Taffaro and other parish leaders for what is another
backwards and wrongheaded step by the Parish to limit housing opportunities
for people of color. We will continue to advocate in court and through HUD's
processes until there is fair housing choice in St. Bernard Parish."

In his statement to the parish council earlier last week, Taffaro
"acknowlede[d] and rebuke[d] discrimination both past and present. But, he
said, "The timing of the Provident project is wrong, the agenda is flawed,
and the implementation is skewed.  At the end of the day, the developers
walk away with their profit, the tenants are herded away from home ownership
opportunities in a recovering community, and the parish is left with the
burden of being left with additional properties expanding the glut of
existing rental and for sale housing."

Perry countered the assertion of surplus housing, citing statistics that 40
percent of pre-Katrina St. Bernard residents say that lack of housing is one
of the factors that prevents them from returning to the parish.
Additionally, Perry argued, a "state-of-the-art" hospital is being built
within walking distance of the Provident development, which means that the
new homes would be suitable for the facility's staff.

Parish officials say that they were forced by the federal government to
re-issue a building permit to Provident Realty Advisors, Inc. although the
original permit had expired and the firm didn't follow any re-application
procedures.

According to the GNOFHAC, the current situation follows on the heels of a
fifth motion for contempt that it filed against the parish in January,
sustaining that the parish's actions violated the terms of a February 2008
Con-sent Order and the Fair Housing Act. The previous decree was extended
through the end of this year by Judge Berrigan, who said that allegations
against the parish, "if true, indicate that the parish is prepared to
deviate from normal procedures in an effort to harass and delay Provident's
ongoing construction."

Some of the steps Taffaro suggested in last week's council meeting for
Provident include obtaining a wetlands permit from the Army Corps of
Engineers, a release from the State Fire Marshal, and a review by the Water
and Sewer Division.

"Their assertions are laughable," said Perry. "Provident Housing has done
everything they have been obligated to do under the permitting pro-cess.
...they intend to stop the project regardless of whether [Provi-dent] do[es]
anything right or wrong."

Perry also pointed out that the U.S.  Agency for Housing and Urban
Development, HUD, is considering withdrawing hurricane recovery funds from
the parish as a result of this situation. Additionally, in an extremely rare
move, HUD's Secretary has initiated a complaint process. Perry says that
Secretary Dono-van "saw activities that were so egregious that he decided to
launch the complaint process against St. Bernard Parish."

This article was originally published in the March 7, 2011 print edition of
The Louisiana Weekly newspaper