C3 NOLA Concern, Community, and Compassion

HANO ex-consultant admits taking bribes
Company paid him $45,000, officials say

Thursday, November 16, 2006
West Bank bureau

A former consultant to the Housing Authority of New Orleans pleaded guilty to bribery, federal officials announced Wednesday.

James Lozano, 54, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to bribery in connection with the use of federal funds, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, Special Agent in Charge James Bernazzani of the New Orleans FBI office and Special Agent in Charge Thomas Luke of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general's office.

Lozano was a HANO consultant for the construction of the Fischer Senior Housing Village in Algiers. Federal officials say Lozano was paid about $45,000 in bribes to influence HANO to pay invoices to a construction company that had been in a dispute with the housing agency.

Lozano faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 13.

Activists link homelessness to federal spending priorities:
Mortgage-holders get more aid than poor

Wednesday, November 15, 2006
By Gwen Filosa

Cutbacks in federal affordable-housing programs over the past quarter century caused "massive homelessness" on American streets, according to a report released Tuesday by a California-based advocacy group.

Since 1996, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has spent nothing directly on construction of new public housing while more than 100,000 public housing units have been demolished, sold off or redeveloped during the same time period, the report found.

Instead, HUD has relied on the Hope VI grant program that it administers to transform distressed public housing, such as the St. Thomas and Desire complexes in New Orleans, into mixed-income neighborhoods that invariably deliver fewer subsidized homes.

"The federal government is spending money on housing, but not on developing and preserving affordable housing," according to the study, "Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness, and Policy Failures," by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) in San Francisco.

November 3, 2006

Dear LRA:

This is a challenge to the proposal to count the $200 million to Entergy
towards the requirement that over 50% of CDBG funds benefit low and
moderate income people. We have no objection to the LRA giving $200
million to Entergy, just do not try to count it towards the legal
requirement that at least 50% of the CDBG funds go to low and moderate
income communities. It is unjust and illegal to bail out a large
corporation and the business community with CDBG funds and then say you are
going to count it as helping the working poor and deduct that money from
the funds that are supposed to go to the low and moderate income community.

LRA submitted Amendment 6 on October 25. It proposes to use $200 million
(of the $1.1875 billion allocated for infrastructure under the initial
Action Plan) as grants to Entergy to repair electricity and natural gas
infrastructure in New Orleans . Total estimated costs are $842 million and
estimated insurance reimbursement is $250 million.

Agencies in charge of housing New Orleans' poor prefer not to

October 30, 2006
Sara Gran

Former residents of New Orleans public housing, along with housing activists
and attorneys, have filed a lawsuit against the Housing Authority of New
Orleans and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They've
sued for former housing project residents' right to return home.

No one thinks the projects are ideal. But rents have nearly doubled in some
parts of New Orleans since the hurricane. It's harder to get housing now,
not easier. And yet it's now, just when they're needed the most, that HANO
and HUD seem to have lost interest in low-income housing entirely.

To hear HANO's side of the story, it's doing the plaintiffs a favor by
locking them out of their homes. In the Oct. 18 Times-Picayune, HANO
described its holdings as "deteriorated, obsolete" housing located in areas

Lower 9th Plan: Start 'From Scratch'
Residents of the New Orleans neighborhood will hear results of a
consultant's study today. But it's not the only proposal in town.
By Ann M. Simmons, Times Staff Writer
September 23, 2006

NEW ORLEANS — A consulting firm hired by the New Orleans City Council to
devise a plan for the city's most storm-damaged neighborhoods will recommend
rebuilding the Lower 9th Ward — considered by many "ground zero" of the
destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina — "from scratch."

Miami-based urban planner and housing consultant Paul Lambert, along with
other urban planning groups, met with Lower 9th Ward residents and
incorporated their ideas into a proposal to change the area's street pattern
to create a new "town center." That idea is part of a report he is to
present to residents today.

In some 300 community meetings and workshops over the last five months,

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/22/jackson-blocked-democrats

EXCLUSIVE: Agency Report Shows Secretary Personally Blocked Contracts To
Democrats
In April, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson told a group of real estate
officials that he once canceled a government contract because the contractor
was critical of President Bush. Awarding contracts based on political
leanings “violates federal law.” Jackson is a “longtime Bush friend” and
former neighbor in Dallas, Texas.

The Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development
has conducted a detailed investigation and produced a 340-page report
detailing his findings. The agency has given a copy to Jackson, but refused
to release the report to the public.

ThinkProgress has obtained the executive summary. Here are some key
excerpts:

– “During the investigation, Secretary JACKSON’s Chief of Staff, as well as
the HUD Deputy Secretary testified that, in a senior staff meeting, JACKSON

FAIR HOUSING CENTER CALLS ON ST. BERNARD PARISH TO REPEAL DISCRIMINATORY ORDINANCE; ORDINANCE MAY BAN NON-WHITE RENTERS

http://www.gnofairhousing.org/

The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) calls on St. Bernard Parish to repeal a discriminatory ordinance recently passed by the Parish Council. According to the St. Bernard Parish website, “Except with a special permit, owners who weren’t previously renting out a single-family residence in R-1 zones will now be prohibited from doing so unless the renter is a blood relative…” www.sbpg.net/sep2006.html.

The ordinance’s blood relative requirement will prevent St. Bernard homeowners with covered residences from renting to any person not of the owner’s own race and national origin. The most recent estimates from United States Census Data indicate that whites own nearly 93% of St. Bernard Parish owner-occupied housing. As a result, in most circumstances, only whites would be able to rent most single-family housing in the Parish.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

September 22, 2006

CONTACT:

Natalie Wyeth
Louisiana Recovery Authority
(225) 382-5502
natalie.wyeth@la.gov

LRA Infrastructure Task Force and Healthcare Committee Hold Joint Meeting
Tuesday

BATON ROUGE, La. (September 22, 2006) - The Louisiana Recovery Authority's
(LRA) Infrastructure and Transportation Task Force and Health Care Committee
will hold a joint meeting on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 from 8:30 a.m. to
12:00 p.m. in House Committee Room No. 5 in the State Capitol in Baton
Rouge, LA.

The groups will consider the future of healthcare infrastructure in New
Orleans, including the rebuilding of the Medical Center of Louisiana - New
Orleans and how it is integrated into the healthcare infrastructure system
in the region.

The agenda includes updates from:

Dr. Fred Cerise, La. Department of Health and Hospitals
Dr. William Jenkins, LSU Health Sciences Center
Dr. Allen Miller, Tulane Health Sciences Center
To view the full agenda, click here.

Stop the Violence Hip Hop Caucus
NEW ORLEANS ARENA
OCTOBER 21st, 2006
9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Theme: Communities in Action
Greetings,

Please join the Hip Hop Caucus for a critical phone conference aimed at focusing our work and discussion on immediate actions to stop the violence in New Orleans and in Katrina diaspora communities, as well as addressing long-term challenges in the continuing struggle for accountability and justice.

DATE: Wednesday, September 20, 2006
TIME: 5:00 p.m. EST, 4:00 CST, 3:00 MST & 2:00 PST
Please call 218-936-6666 Code 10512#

Gandhi said "Poverty is the worst form of violence." After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast region, the truly deep and persistent poverty that exists in our country was exposed to the nation and to the rest of the world. Initially, there was unified national outcry at the shocking scenes of abandonment and failed government response. Today, however, the same people who were abandoned on rooftops and in the Superdome continue to be neglected by all levels of government and excluded in the rebuilding process. As a result, crime and violence is surging in New Orleans and in cities like Houston where large populations of Katrina survivors are living. The reality is, people are killing and people are dying because they have lost hope.

Wow, the media covered Iberville! Unfortunately not in the greatest of light.
But it does say that HANO plans on opening ALL 900 units!

http://www.wwltv.com/medical/stories/wwl091906tprats.26ca2fe6.html

Inspectors said one of the problem areas is the Iberville Development and that
it is being treated.

A spokesperson for HANO said that all of Iberville’s 900 units will soon be
opened so they have cleaned out the refrigerators and kitchen cabinets.