Four years after Hurricane Katrina, affordable public housing still isn’t available for many New Orleans residents. How white residents in St. Bernard Parish are keeping blacks out.
By: Brentin Mock
St. Bernard Parish, southeast of New Orleans, has the distinction in Louisiana of taking the most direct hit from Hurricane Katrina four years ago this week.
In the slow, painful rebuilding that followed, the parish has gone out of its way to keep low-income, working black families from living there. A federal court ruled twice this year—once in March and again last week—that St. Bernard’s attempts at deciding who could move in and who had to stay out were violations of the Fair Housing Act. According to the ruling, the parish’s ordinances were shown to have both a disparate racial impact and discriminatory intent. They wanted to keep black people from living there. A federal judge described the parish’s efforts as “camouflaged racial expressions.”
Keeping St. Bernard Parish White....
1 comment:
I am not racist and they are many low income black families living in St. Bernard, including right next to me. We BOTH share the same fear of living within blocks of PROJECTS camouflaged as a "low income housing unit." We BOTH watch the news and see the danger they impose. Do I think this move is racist? No! How about we move these low income housing PROJECT to a street over from you? Would you purchase a house next to a housing PROJECT?
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