FAIR HOUSING ACTION CENTER RELEASES RESULTS OF HOUSING ACCESSIBILITY STUDY; NON-COMPLIANCE WITH FAIR HOUSING ACT A PROBLEM FOR NEWLY DEVELOPED HOUSING
New! Watch a video of the press conference
On Thursday, May 21, 2009, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) revealed the results of its recent investigation into housing accessibility discrimination against people with disabilities in the New Orleans area, including Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Tammany Parishes. The investigation is the first to be conducted in the area since Hurricane Katrina.
The investigation showed that 100% of the twenty-two complexes investigated were inaccessible to people with disabilities. The complexes failed to comply with one or more of the Fair Housing Act design and construction standards. 81% of the complexes tested failed to comply with two or more of the requirements, and on average, the newly constructed multi-family complexes examined failed to comply with three of the seven design and construction standards.
GNOFHAC Executive Director James Perry comments, "Let this report serve as a wake up call to housing developers, government officials and people across the community. All of us must work to make New Orleans open and welcoming to all people by taking a stand against inaccessible housing."
5-21-09 Download a pdf of the audit here
5-21-09 Download an illustrated fact sheet outlining the 7 design and construction requirements of the Fair Housing Act here
5-21-09 Download a pdf of the press release here
5-22-09 Read the Times Picayune article "Audit: Apartments Slight Disabled" here or download as a pdf here
NEW! 5-27-09 Read Kate Scott's blog post on Access Denied on change.org here
NEW! 6-1-09 Read the Times Picayune editorial "Access For All" here
NEW! 6-1-09 Read the Gambit article "The Quite Bias" here
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LOCAL FILMMAKERS WIN AWARD FOR SHORT FILM ON THE DEMOLITION OF PUBLIC HOUSING
This past weekend, "St. Joe", an experimental short on the demolition of public housing by local filmmaker Luisa Dantas, was awarded the prize of "Best Short" by the Patois: 6th Annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival jury!
"St. Joe" is also just a small part of an ongoing multi-platform documentary project. To get on the updates list, please send an email to iinfo@joluproductions.com
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GNOFHAC ATTORNEY QUOTED IN ARTICLE ON NIMBY-ISM IN NEW ORLEANS EAST
"An affordable housing proposal that has produced vehement opposition from residents of the upscale Lake Carmel subdivision in eastern New Orleans resulted in a 4-4 vote at a City Planning Commission meeting this week. ...
Lucia Blacksher, an attorney for the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, said the city has a dire need for affordable housing and warned that efforts by public officials to block projects such as Foley's could violate the federal Fair Housing Act."
3-25-09 Read the Times Picayune article here
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FAIR HOUSING CENTER CALLS ON GOVERNOR JINDAL TO ACCEPT ALL STIMULUS PACKAGE FUNDS
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has said that he will not accept all of the funding set aside for Louisiana in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that President Obama recently signed into law. Please contact Gov. Jindal today and demand that he accept all of the nearly $4 billion dedicated to Louisiana!
Specifically, Governor Jindal has rejected $98 million in increased unemployment benefits. In the face of a slow recovery from hurricanes across the southern part of the state, a high unemployment rate, and high foreclosure rate, Louisiana needs the expanded unemployment assistance offered in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009!
2-26-09 Contact Governor Jindal NOW.
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FAIR HOUSING CENTER SEEKS REPEAL OF ST. BERNARD PARISH MULTI-FAMILY MORATORIUM
The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) filed a motion today seeking enforcement of a Consent Order entered on February 27, 2008, in Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center v. St. Bernard Parish et al, Case No. 06-7185, United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana. GNOFHAC’s motion alleges that St. Bernard Parish’s recently enacted moratorium on multi-family housing violates the Consent Order, which enjoins the Parish from violating the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws that prohibit race discrimination.
12-18-08 Read the press release here
12-18-08 Read more about the St. Bernard case here
3-11-09 Lawsuit goes to court. Read the Times Picayune press coverage here and here
NEW! FAIR HOUSING CENTER WINS LAWSUIT AGAINST ST BERNARD PARISH; PARISH MUST RESCIND MORATORIUM
On March 25, 2009, the Honorable Judge Helen G. Berrigan granted the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center's (GNOFHAC) motion seeking enforcement of a Consent Order entered on February 7, 2008 in Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center v. St. Bernard Parish et al, Case No. 06-7185, United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.
The February 27, 2008 Consent Order resolved GNOFHAC's challenge to a multi-family moratorium St. Bernard enacted immediately after Hurricane Katrina, as well as an ordinance that restricted the rental of single-family residences in St. Bernard Parish to those related by blood to the owner of the property.
3-25-09 Read the full press release here
3-25-09 Read the Judge's decision here
3-25-09 Read the Times Picayune article "Federal judge rules against St. Bernard Parish in multi-family housing lawsuit" here
3-27-09 Read the Times Picayune article "Parish's Housing Ban Gets Tossed" here
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FAIR HOUSING AND CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS FILE FEDERAL LAWSUIT IN POST-KATRINA HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASE
Washington, DC and New Orleans, LA (November 12, 2008) Today civil rights and fair housing groups filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development and the Louisiana Recovery Authority. The suit alleges that the Road Home, Louisiana's Hurricane Katrina recovery program, discriminates against African-American homeowners in New Orleans.
The Road Home, an $11 billion federally-funded program, is the largest housing redevelopment program in U.S. history. The suit is being filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of five individuals representing a class of more than 20,000 African-American homeowners and two fair housing organizations, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and the National Fair Housing Alliance.
11-12-08 Read the full press release
11-12-08 Download a copy of the Road Home fact sheet
11-12-08 Download a copy of the complaint
11-12-08 Listen to a recording of the press conference
11-14-08 Watch a video of the November 12th press conference
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