Government for and by the property owners

When I first read that HANO was refusing to release data about voucher usage, I thought they were just obstructing efforts to analyze their effectiveness. Their reasoning sounded like a dodge.

“Everyone is always concerned with the concentration of poverty but I’m not sure if we can identify concentrations,” said Keith Pettigrew, deputy general manager for operations at HANO in an interview outside council chambers. “It’s a roundabout way of finding out where people live and people have a right to keep that private.”

But reading the quotes from our illustrious Councilpersons in this article, I get the impression that Pettigrew is spot-on.

Head pointed to Central City, where she says Section 8 vouchers may be concentrating to the detriment of residents who complain about properties that landlords don’t maintain, even though they are receiving the government subsidy, and tenants who “do not conform to” the standards of the neighborhoods.

Head is clearly implying that her way to deal with negligent landlords involves eliminating affordable housing. I have no idea what she means by "tenants who 'do not conform to' the standards of the neighborhoods" but it sounds like a typically Stepfordish Head statement. Meanwhile Jon Johnson is concerned about the needs of landowners in his district while subtly suggesting that subsidized residents just don't belong in his neighborhood.

“This is not equitable or fair to the people who have returned and rebuilt, or to the low-income people who I believe are in some cases being steered places without being told about opportunities in other parts of the city that may be more advantageous or more central,” Johnson said after the meeting.

A few weeks ago, Head and Johnson were equally as vicious toward New Orleanians still unfortunate enough to be stuck with FEMA trailers.

“At what point is the administration going to say, ‘We understand there have been hardships we recognize it, but we have to enforce the rule of law?’ ” Head asked. She said that homeowners in her district believe that “their house value is down 25 to 30 percent because a trailer is in the neighborhood.”

“Five and a half years after Katrina, you have to make a value judgment about how you value the people who have come back,” she said, recommending the city set a deadline of the end of the year to have all trailers removed.

It stands to reason that the folks who are still stuck with trailers at this point are among those who have had the roughest time getting back on their feet. The obstacles presented by negotiating the Road Home process, dealing with SBA loans, arguing with insurance companies are only amplified for homeowners without sufficient means, education, or experience fighting these sorts of battles. More often than not the people left behind by the process are the most socially isolated or the poorest or they have other disadvantages such as disabilities, or they're caring for disabled family members.

Stacy Head wants to make a "value judgment" as to whether or not its worth kicking these people into the streets in order to allay paranoid plutocratic fears about property values.

Property values were of indispensable use to those people Jon Johnson wants to be fair and equitable to now that they've returned and rebuilt. A case is pending in federal court right now which may determine that Louisiana's Road Home program discriminated against poor homeowners in less desirable neighborhoods by basing restoration grants on property values and not the actual cost of rebuilding.

For years, fair housing advocates have complained that the Road Home’s use of home values to calculate grants amounts to racial discrimination because it means families in economically depressed neighborhoods, which are typically majority-black, get less money to repair their homes than someone with an identical house in an area where values have appreciated.

This discrimination could have affected as many as 25,000 families many of whom could be staying in subsidized housing right now. Stacy Head wants to know where they live so she can make a value judgment as to whether or not they're really necessary.

Update: On November 2, I think I might just write in this guy in every race.