[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish FACTS Exploited

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish FACTS Exploited

   

Unfortunately, the situation in St. Bernard Parish is far from what is
reported on these four apartment construction sites; most media refuse to
report the St. Bernard Parish resident's point of view. 

It is irresponsible not to check the facts; it only continues to exploit
racial concerns in order to sell headlines. Looking for racism and finding
it where it does not exist only perpetuates racism. The demographics from
the 2010 census may interest you, but that data will not support the theory
of the developer and GNO Fair Housing. Nor will the rental market data,
which does not support the claim for a NEED for public housing. 

The developer allowed the building permits to expire, were notified as such
and instructed to re-apply. According to the local parish government, the
local officials, including building inspectors, are barred by the court from
entering the properties. The apartments were never advertised as serving
low-income African American families. In fact, the construction site signage
lacks the Fair Housing Act required HUD logo and other information for
subsidized housing. Many residents report that despite being on the Federal
do not call list, the developer utilizes an automated robo-call system to
inform residents of the apartments now under construction. With such a large
diverse population of Hispanic, Vietnamese, Islenos, Caucasian, African
American, Middle Eastern (India and Pakistan), and Honduran and other
Central and South American descendants living in or near poverty level in
the multitude of trailer parks, RV parks, and multi-family and single-family
dwellings, the majority of the tenants would most likely not be African
American. There is an abundance of rental properties available and this data
is supported by the real estate market data for the local parish. And this
does not include all the spaces available in the trailer and RV parks. The
majority of the residents living in the trailer and RV parks do not qualify
for these developments low income criteria.

These four developments are located in repetitive flood zones with
questionable water retention and drainage methods which may adversely affect
the existing residential neighborhoods. They need to follow the rules like
everyone else, there was a pond and natural wetlands habitat which was
destroyed and covered-up before applying for an Army Corps of Engineers
wetlands permit. The COE testified in council hearing that they made an
error and additionally that they never did soil samples nor did a
determination with "boots on the ground." Instead, they made an expedient
determination from the office with the wrong map. There are documented clean
water act violations which neither the EPA nor Louisiana DEQ have followed
up on. The developers did not public notice the COE wetlands, the La DEQ
water discharge, nor the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency applications in
either of the two local newspapers, denying the community it's human right
to secure tenure and right to public participation, including the right to
equal access to all information before decisions are made. Nor would the
developer provide information to residents who requested, and that
information was not included in the documents received from the State of
Louisiana, upon public records requests which were denied for nearly a month
until just before the State Board (Housing Finance Agency) voted to approve
the funding application. Public record request to the local parish
government remains denied.

There is an enormous amount of ongoing levee reconstruction in St Bernard
Parish, because this community was ground zero for Hurricane Katrina, which
left residents stranded for over five days as relief efforts were focused on
the City of New Orleans. The two major thoroughfares must be swept clean of
dirt daily to avoid the risk of fatalities; there is a major concern that
the school buses, which must travel on these now dusty and mud laden roads,
will have an accident and severely injure the school children. Under any
circumstances, construction trucks must clean the mud from their tires, but
especially under these. The developer just does not respect the local
community and cries racism when they do not want to follow the rules.

The GNO Fair Housing hired several expert witnesses for lawsuits filed and
those experts cost a lot of money. Additionally, while a nonprofit, the GNO
Fair Housing has an annual budget of over three-quarters of a million
dollars. These types of lawsuits take advantage of communities still
struggling to rebuild and the monetary relief GNO Fair Housing seeks will
contribute to its profit and revenue and that of the paid employees. 

In the part of New Orleans known as Lakeview, where in 2005 the 17th Street
canal levee failed, the State of Louisiana and HUD have allowed a
revitalization program which supports real estate property values and the
integrity of a predominately single-family, owner occupied residential
neighborhood. The program gives incentives to rebuild single-family
dwellings if the property owner agrees to occupy the home for upwards of 5
years, or have an immediate family member occupy the home from the same
length of time. No One Called Racism.

In two other parts of New Orleans known as New Orleans East and Eastover
subdivision, developers were denied council approval by the City of New
Orleans to construct multi-family, subsidized housing, because the
developments would bring crime, high density, devaluation of property, and
lower the quality of life. No One Called Racism.

After the levee failures and the massive crude oil spill of Hurricane
Katrina, many contractors, mostly from the State of Florida, swooped down
like vultures to take advantage of the victims of the disaster and buy up
the housing stock. Their methods of construction were substandard, often not
passing inspection and their mold and contamination remediation were very
questionable; closing the walls and leaving many homes with the mud and junk
of the flood still on the studs. While the contractors intended to flip the
houses at over-inflated prices, the market began to crash. Suddenly, the
contractors wanted to set up commercial real estate businesses and become
absentee landlords with gouging rental prices.
However cruelly motivated some council members may be, the ordinances were
passed to require anyone choosing to become a landlord to obtain a sort of
business occupational license in the form of a rental permit. There was an
exemption similar to the Lakeview approved exemption: if your tenant was an
immediate family member, there was no need to apply for the rental permit,
but your property was still subject to commercial building inspections and
you still needed to apply as a real estate business. That's when GNO Fair
Housing jumped in. 

It should be known, GNO Fair Housing refused to represent homeowners in a
certain area of the Murphy Oil crude oil spill who were denied these rental
permits, while many others were receiving these permits. The denials were
because the St. Bernard Parish Government publicly supported the voluntary
buy-up of the neighborhood in that particular area for expansion of the
refinery. GNO Fair Housing reason to residents to deny representation was
vague and elusive. Yet, along comes this developer with $61 million to
construct 288 rental units (that's over $200,000 per unit), with a monthly
rental revenue of over $51,000 per complex for each of the four complexes,
piggy-backing onto the GNO Fair Housing Federal consent decree, crying
racism. That's more like the RACE to the bank. 

Around the same time, apartment landlords in a particular area known as
Village Square were denied building permits as a moratorium was placed in
this one area because there was a possibility of funding for a voluntary buy
up with a hazard mitigation program for green space. The council made it
publicly known that any land in that general northern vicinity of this low
lying flood zone may also be bought out for green space. Yet, in the same
general area, this developer is allowed one of its four developments. 

Although not affiliated with this commenter, there is an association of
residents referred to as the N.O.W. concerned citizens of St. Bernard
Parish, who are concerned about the lack of wetlands permits, property
values declining, proper construction procedures and inspections not done,
damages to adjacent properties, polluting the Bluebird drainage canal by the
developer, etc., etc.  They have a website with photos and commentaries at
this link.
http://www.stbernardparishnow.com/home.html 

And N.O.W. you know. These developers need to follow the rules like everyone
else.