Huge March Planned for Eve of Katrina Evictions

By David Swanson
t r u t h o u t | Press Release

Sunday 26 February 2006

A march had been planned for February 28th, the eve of the scheduled March 1st evictions of Hurricane Katrina victims. FEMA moved the evictions to March 15th, so activists have moved the march to March 14th. A press conference on Capitol Hill will be followed by a march through Washington, DC, past FEMA, past the Department of Homeland Security, and to the White House, where a permit has been obtained to rally in Lafayette Square Park until midnight. If Bush does not meet the marchers' demands, however, many plan not to leave.

The demands are for a serious housing plan for those already evicted and those still in hotels, and an end to evictions. Another way of putting it is that the marchers will be demanding that the federal government cease violating the law by working to exclude people from a city on the basis of race and class.

Last night, Reverend Lennox Yearwood, whom many saw on television being tossed out of a Congressional hearing for questioning Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and who has received death threats for his activism, convened an organizing meeting and formed committees to put together as large a march as possible.

Yearwood recounted for those present the history of FEMA's broken promises and shifting deadlines, the December 1st deadline, the December 14th deadline, etc., up through the latest moved deadline. But Yearwood also spoke of the suicides of those with nowhere left to go, the 80 percent increase in alcohol sales in affected neighborhoods, the absolute hopelessness of people whom this country has abandoned. "We're not asking for another moved deadline," Yearwood said, "but for a moratorium on evictions and anything that looks like an eviction until they have a plan for housing."

Joel Segal, Vice Chair of the advisory board of Progressive Democrats of America, spoke as well. "FEMA is telling the media they have a housing plan," he said. "FEMA is lying." There are 13,000 trailers sitting in Arkansas waiting to go to New Orleans, he said. There are 12,000 people evicted with no where to go. If they get a trailer, Segal said, it has no electricity.

The Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign released this statement:

Yesterday FEMA announced a two-week extension for all hotel/motel residents in Louisiana and Mississippi, which enables them to remain in their rooms until March 15, 2006. Once again, we witness the impact that a coalition of conscience and a unified commitment to action for Katrina survivors can have on the otherwise unfettered execution of the Bush Administration's authority. For this reason, we are postponing our press conference, march and vigil until March 14, 2006.

However, the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign is not demanding that FEMA move deadlines, but that FEMA move Katrina survivors into viable and affordable transitional and long-term housing. We demand that FEMA move the displaced into trailers so that they can work to rebuild their own homes. We protest the psychological cruelty of this agency in constantly holding the peril of homelessness over the heads of our brothers and sisters. We object to FEMA holding survivors in limbo, perpetually uncertain about what should be guaranteed for these victims of government neglect and ineptitude. Sending people long distances from their communities, to live in temporary shelters or trailers where they cannot keep their jobs is unacceptable. Offering limited rental assistance to a selective group, which cannot pay for real apartments in a city where price gouging has sent rents sky-high, is unacceptable.

We are postponing our rally in Lafayette Park and press conference accordingly until March 14th, but we are not postponing our call for justice: NO EVICTIONS UNTIL REAL TRANSITIONAL AND PERMANENT HOUSING IS AVAILABLE FOR ALL TO RETURN HOME! TRAILERS IN NEW ORLEANS NOW! PASS HR 4197!

Over the next two weeks, we will continue to build our campaign on the ground and in Congress to pass "The Hurricane Reclamation, Recovery, Reconstruction and Relief Act" for comprehensive assistance to enable all Katrina survivors to return and rebuild their communities.

Please join us on March 14th for this historic press conference, march and vigil in front of the house where George Bush serenely sleeps while thousands face the prospect of their families having no shelter.

Press Conference: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. (Press Conference: Rayburn House Office Building - Room #2237)

Mardi Gras Style March for Justice: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (March will start from Capitol South Metro Stop at 2:00 p.m. to the White House)

Rally and Protest at the White House: 3:00 p.m. - 11:59 p.m. (Rally and Protest at the White House - Lafayette Park)

David Swanson is creator of MeetWithCindy.org, co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997. His website is www.davidswanson.org.



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FEMA Hearing Wraps Up in NO
By Susan Finch
Times-Picayune

Saturday 25 February 2006

Witness says aid ended in Chicago.

Five days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on Aug. 29, the government flew housekeeper Dorothy Craft and her boyfriend to Chicago, but since then it hasn't provided them a nickel's worth of help to get by, Craft told a federal judge in New Orleans Friday.

Craft was one of the last plaintiff witnesses to take the stand in U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval's two-day hearing on a lawsuit that claims the Federal Emergency Management Agency has bungled its mission of helping disaster victims, in the process leaving thousands of them on the brink of being homeless.

Duval has not ruled on the case, which seeks to force FEMA to make changes in the way it is providing housing aid and temporary living expenses - including continuing to pay evacuees' hotel bills while they await more permanent quarters - to those displaced by the storm.

Duval spent much of Friday afternoon listening to acting deputy director of FEMA's disaster recovery division, Donna Dannels, defend the agency. It was ill-equipped, she admitted, to grapple with the worst natural disaster in U.S. history and had to gear up fast, often with outside hired help, to handle what grew to more than 1.2 million applications for emergency needs and housing assistance.

On the stand earlier, Craft said Chicago's human resources agency found her and her husband, whom she married Sept. 16, a $530-a-month apartment on the city's drug-infested South Side. Meanwhile, she added, because FEMA still hasn't processed her application for rental assistance, the couple has been paying their landlord only $200 a month - money her husband makes as a security guard - until the government help comes in.

Craft put in her application in Chicago on Sept. 7 and called frequently to inquire about its status, only to be told it was "pending," she testified.

While she has waited, she said, she's heard twice from FEMA, once in November when a FEMA worker, thinking Craft was still in town, called about sending someone out to inspect the evacuee's home. Craft faxed the worker her new address. In a call from FEMA last week, Craft was told she was being sent a check, but the money hasn't arrived, she said.

Craft said she rejected FEMA's offer to put her up in a trailer in Alabama after learning they'd "have to be responsible to pay the bills."

Now, she said, FEMA has informed her she has until March 10 to take a one-way flight to New Orleans at the agency's expense. She's reluctant to return: "Why would I want to fly back to New Orleans when I ain't got any place to go?"

Under questioning by Department of Justice attorney Scott Simpson, Dannels tried to explain the causes of delays and glitches about which evacuees have complained.

Many of those problems cropped up, she said, because FEMA's systems weren't designed to deal with such a crushing load of applications. "It created a great deal of the 'pending' category," Dannels testified. FEMA has plans to install a new software system, she said, but it won't be ready by the next hurricane season.

Duval has asked for post-trial briefs from attorneys on both sides of the case. He has not indicated when he will issue his ruling.