Common Ground Legal

-ELI ROESCHKE
I volunteered for Common Ground Legal along with Jack, Tom, and Dan. Volunteers from The New England School of Law, as well as the University of Pennsylvania joined us as well.

Tom and I worked on a special Section 8 project for Common Ground that will come to be used in the pending lawsuit against the housing department of New Orleans. Our efforts may eventually help to save some 5,000 housing units across New Orleans, which in turn would allow countless numbers of displaced families to return to their homes. Tom and I covered a great deal of the city over the course of the week, making numerous appointments with landlords to verify HANO's list of available Section 8 housing. HANO claims there are approximately 900 Section 8 housing units currently available for eligible families, and thus housing projects such as the Lafitte housing project are expendable in order to further "develop" the city. It would cost more money to demolish the housing projects, than it would to repair them. After working on this special project, Tom and I verified that more than half of the 900 "available" Section 8 housing units were in fact unavailable. Some units were in disrepair most were already occupied. Therefore, the list of 900 available Section 8 housing units should look more like 300-400 and the undamaged housing projects should be reopened. Only then will low income displaced families be able to return to their homes. Hopefully the work Tom and I did, will help to make an impression in the pending lawsuit against HUD New Orleans.

From my first hand experience interacting with members of the community, our presence as volunteers in New Orleans was greatly appreciated. I plan on returning to New Orleans to volunteer again before I graduate, and I strongly recommend other students to do the same.