HUD is set to bulldoze New Orleans Public Housing. A Rally at HUD in DC TOMORROW will beheld organized by: Advancement Project, Hip Hop Caucus, New Orleans Public Housing Residents, Empower DC, ONE DC, CODEPINK

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson frequently recounts his role in the historic march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge when civil rights activists were clubbed by law enforcement and bitten by their dogs in Selma, Alabama. On Thursday December 13th, hundreds will flock to HUD's offices to let Secretary Jackson know that he needs to revisit the true tenants of the civil rights movement - equity, inclusion, and justice. One month after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Secretary Jackson said "New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." While Secretary Jackson's rise to a cabinet level position in the White House is a direct result of the civil rights movement, he now is using his position to set back the dreams and objectives of the very movement in which he claims a role.

Despite Hurricane Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis in recent history, Secreatary Jackson is spearheading a wholesale redevelopment of New Orleans by spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4,600 public housing apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units - an 82% reduction in homes for very low-income families. Ironically, Secretary Jackson's bio on HUD's website states that he is "guiding HUD in its mission of providing affordable housing." But he is shirking his duty to the people of New Orleans; African-American residents continue to be disproportionately displaced but HUD has yet to devise a strategy to bring them home. Instead, HUD is the architect of a long-term plan that effectively provides two choices: be shut out of New Orleans or be homeless.

Public housing residents across the country know that the effort to return these families is a historic moment not only for the 4,000 displaced New Orleans public housing families, but for every poor family in America. Public housing residents in California, Colorado, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are holding solidarity protest this week because they know that  the outcome of public housing in New Orleans will determine whether the federal government can pounce on families, dispose of them, and continue to marginalize them because they are poor and/or Black.

Here are the details for tomorrow's rally:

Thursday, December 13th, 2007   

11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC

Organized by: Advancement Project, Hip-Hop Caucus, New Orleans Public Housing Residents, Empower DC, ONE DC, CODEPINK

If you are in the DC area please join the Hip-Hop Caucus and others tomorrow in front of HUD during your lunch break.

If you are not in the area you can read Bill Quigley's article HUD Sends New Orleans Bulldozers and $400,000 Appartments for the Holidays or visit AdvancementProject.Org to get more information about the issue to pass along to friends and colleagues.