Evacuees call for low-cost housing

In the 17 months since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Sharon Jasper has shuffled from place to place, including a cot at the Superdome and temporary housing in Houston.

On Tuesday, she and nine other displaced residents of New Orleans’ public housing projects came to Capitol Hill to tell their stories, as the House Committee on Financial Services examined the loss of affordable housing because of the storm.

“As a New Orleans resident, a mother and a grandmother, I am looking out for the families that need shelter and a place to live,” Jasper said before the hearing at a news conference sponsored by the Advancement Project, a Washington-based civil rights group that filed suit in June against federal and local housing agencies. “Why not bring us back home?”

The lawsuit charges that by failing to repair and reopen undamaged or minimally damaged public housing, the agencies are discriminating against low-income African American residents.

The St. Bernard complex, where Jasper lived, suffered minor flooding and some mold damage from the storm. But the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of New Orleans plan to demolish it and similar complexes to build mixed-income apartments. More than 4,000 mostly black families who lived in public housing have been unable to return to New Orleans because of the demolition plan, according to the lawsuit’s supporters.

Julie M. Andrews, another displaced resident, told the House panel of her concerns about racial and economic disparity in the redevelopment of New Orleans.

“At this time, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are being further oppressed by the vicious plot to eliminate the low-income people of New Orleans, most of who are people of color,” she said. “It is an abomination to attempt to replace one race of people with another for the sake of economic gain.”

Andrews added that she and other evacuees were willing to work with the government to return to New Orleans. “The calls and cries of our people are deafening,” she said. “We need to come home.”

HUD spokeswoman Donna White said in an interview that redeveloping public housing would be more cost-effective than repairing current units, which she described as old and deteriorating even before the hurricane.

“These families deserve better homes and housing, and also a better neighborhood,” she said.

Her agency shares the same concerns as the displaced residents, she said. “We hope to work expeditiously. They should have the opportunity to come back. They have been through a lot.”

stacy.anderson@latimes.com