Common Ground Legal - Section 8 Housing research

-TOM BAXTER
Along with Jack, Dan, and Eli, as well as the esteemed "Little" Johnny Parsons, I spent my week in New Orleans working at Common Ground, spending the majority of the week on their project to verify available Section 8 housing. As mentioned in other posts, there is a lawsuit in progress to re-open the Lafitte housing complex. The powers that be are claiming that there is a surplus of over 900 available Section 8 residences that are currently ready for rental, but without any demand. They are using this as support for their proposal to demolish the Lafitte complex and rebuild the area as a mixed-income neighborhood.

To aid this lawsuit, Common Ground has been attempting to verify that such a surplus of Section 8 housing exists by searching the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) list of Section 8 housing and investigating the availability of the addresses listed. While working on this project Eli and I went through portions of the HANO list and called landlords to inquire as to the actual availability of the listings. (Not so) Surprisingly, over half of the properties listed were not available for rent, either because the properties are not yet rebuilt after the hurricane or because they have already been rented. For any properties that were legitimately available for rent, Eli and I were able to schedule appointments and visit the properties to collect information and pictures to compile a database of available housing for any people still searching for housing after being displaced by the hurricane.

I enjoyed this task at Common Ground, and since I had my car in N.O. we were able to see a lot more of the city while visiting the available properties that many members of our trip may not have been able to see. It was amazing to see that even after 18 months the city is still in such a quagmire, but the residents are hopeful and ready to move on and prosper. Eli and I were only part of a larger group of rotating volunteers to work on this project, but it was very redeeming to know that we are part of something that can be used not only to help reopen the Lafitte complex by aiding the lawsuit, but also that by visiting and gathering information about available Section 8 housing we are helping people return home to New Orleans to pick up where they left off.