[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE: Katrina survivors have a right to go home, say Greens

[Jim Stauffer]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, March 2, 2006


Green Party: Katrina survivors have a right to return
home

• New Orleans development should ensure Katrina
survivors stable homes, not displacement, say Greens.


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders joined the
Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign and other supporters of
Katrina survivors in urging FEMA to provide viable and
affordable transitional and long-term housing for
people displaced by last year's hurricanes.

"FEMA has been stringing along Gulf Coast evacuees,
holding the threat of homelessness over their heads,"
said Steve Kramer, co-chair of the Green Party of the
United States.  "We're glad that, under public
pressure, FEMA has extended deadlines for the
temporary provision of shelter in hotels and trailers,
but what evacuees want now is to regain stability and
secure housing, and to reunite with their families and
communities in New Orleans and other towns in the Gulf
Coast from which they were forced to flee."

Many Greens support H.R. 4197, "The Hurricane
Reclamation, Recovery, Reconstruction and Relief" Act
for comprehensive assistance to enable all Katrina
survivors to return and rebuild their communities. 
The bill was introduced by all 42 members of the
Congressional Black Caucus.

"Katrina survivors need protection from price-gouging
when they return to rented houses and apartments, and
they need a guarantee that post-hurricane development
will not drive them out of their homes," said Sundiata
Tellem, Co-Chair of the Black Caucus of the Green
Party of the United States.  "We're especially alarmed
at growing indications that New Orleans' African
American population -- the major source of the New
Orleans' unique traditions and culture -- is being
excluded from plans to restore the city.  And last I'd
checked,  many of the African- American populations of
Georgia, Missisippi, and Alabama were sent to 20
states from which they surely won't have to pay to get
back home."

Mayor C. Ray Nagin's 'Bring New Orleans Back'
commission proposes that residents of districts most
heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina will have four
months to demonstrate strong support for rebuilding
their neighborhoods, or be forced to sell to the
government.

"Mayor Nagin's scheme would banish low-income and
black residents, and turn New Orleans into a feeding
trough for wealthy and chiefly white development
interests," said Leenie Halbert, Green Party activist
and former resident of New Orleans.

On March 14, 2006, a protest organized by the Gulf
Coast Renewal Campaign against Katrina evictions will
take place in Washington, D.C., beginning with a press
conference at 1:00 p.m. in the Rayburn House Office
Building (Room #2237) and continuing with a Mardi Gras
Style March for Justice at 2:00 p.m. beginning at the
Capitol South Metro Station and continuing to the
White House, where a rally will take place at 3:00
p.m.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Green Party of Louisiana
http://www.lagreens.org

Green Party Black Caucus
http://www.greenpartyblackcaucus.net

Common Ground Collective
http://www.commongroundrelief.org 

Green Party: Hurricane Katrina information
http://www.gp.org/katrina2005/

"A New Bottom of the Ninth: Urban planning and New
Orleans"
By Sam Smith, The Progressive Review, January 29, 2006
http://prorev.com/ninth.htm