[StBernard] Website asks New Orleans area residents to weigh in on St. Bernard Parish housing practices

[Westley Annis]

Following St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro's meeting with civil
rights leaders
<http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/st_bernard_parish_president_
cr.html> last week, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center has
launched a campaign to "counteract the racially discriminatory housing
practices of St. Bernard."

Entitled "Enough is Enough St. Bernard,"
<http://www.gnofairhousing.org/enoughisenough.html#action>  it seeks to
encourage both St. Bernard residents and those who live outside St. Bernard,
to tell Taffaro
<http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/st_bernard_authority_usurped
_i.html> and the Parish Council to welcome racial minorities into the
parish. The fair housing center's website on the new initiative is available
at http://www.gnofairhousing.org/enoughisenough.html
<http://www.gnofairhousing.org/enoughisenough.html#action> 

Parish officials maintain that St. Bernard already has some affordable
housing and that increasing it would reduce property values and undermine
the single-family character of the community.

But a federal judge and the the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development  have accused St. Bernard of engaging in racial discriminatory
<http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/02/racial_relations_in_st_berna
rd.html> housing practices. 


Judge Ginger Berrigan has often found the parish in violation of the Fair
Housing Act and related civil rights laws and has ordered the parish to stop
such practices. HUD has threatened to block hundred of millions in federal
funding to St. Bernard -- and much more potentially to the state of
Louisiana -- if the parish does not alter its ways.

St. Bernard has attempted to block multifamily housing developments and
rental units since Hurricane Katrina
<http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/01/st_bernard_multifamily-housi
ng.html> , when about 80 percent of the parish's housing stock was severely
damaged and the council began passing laws to direct regrowth.

"For five years now St. Bernard Parish officials have fought tooth and nail
to keep the doors of St. Bernard Parish closed to renters," according to the
fair housing center's "Enough is Enough" campaign. "These actions
disproportionately prevent African Americans from moving to the Parish
because African-American households in the greater New Orleans area are
significantly more likely than white households in the area to live in
rental housing."

Most recently, St. Bernard has continued its long opposition to four
mixed-income, multifamily apartments. That prompted Berrigan to issue a
restraining order against the parish barring it from further interfering in
the apartments' development. 


"My issue is not racially based, '' Taffaro said during his Friday meeting
with civil rights leaders, explaining his opposition to the developments. "I
do not support segregation. I do not support 'separate but equal,' '' he
said, adding that he fully supports integration.

Taffaro said he is disheartened that there are still, in 2011, portions of
the population who feel "disenfranchised.'' 


At its April 5 council meeting, the Parish Council is expected to rescind
<http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/st_bernard_parish_introduces
_r.html> zoning ordinances that have raised HUD's ire by restricting
multifamily and rental units. 


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Typical column by this writer.  I can't imagine Craig, Wayne or anyone else
saying "Affordable housing?  Yeah, we got some."  


The *poll* is here:

http://www.gnofairhousing.org/enoughisenough.html#action

It's divided (no pun) between a poll for SBP residents and one for
non-residents, though how the hell you verify any of that is beyond me.  It
could

very easily be skewed.  Ah...typical Saul Alinksy tactic and the widget and
things are provided by change.org, Obama's political organization.