A recent report in The Advocate (Baton Rouge) discusses the efforts of the City of New Orleans to address blighted properties that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina and opposition to those efforts.

N.O officials promise not to seize property
Groups criticize deadline to fix or board up houses

Saying the measure would lead to “widespread dispossession of New Orleans homeowners,” a lawyer warned the City Council on Thursday that an Aug. 29 deadline for residents to gut and board up their hurricane-ravaged homes or risk having the city seize them may not pass constitutional muster.

“Land cannot be taken without due process of law,” Loyola University of New Orleans law professor William Quigley, surrounded by two dozen members of the ACORN and Common Ground community groups, told council members.

The ACORN members held a large banner that declared “NO To Plan To Steal Our Land!” and smaller signs that proclaimed “Hands Off Our Property” and “Save Our Homes.”

Council members and officials with Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration assured Quigley, the community groups and residents that the Aug. 29 deadline — established by an ordinance passed by the council in April — is not a land-grab attempt by the city.

“We did something we thought we could use as a guideline,” Councilman Oliver Thomas, one of three  council members who voted for the unanimously adopted ordinance, said.

Councilwoman Shelley Midura, one of four new council members elected since the ordinance’s passage, asked City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields for her assurance that the city has no plans to use the ordinance as a land-grabbing tool.

“That is correct,” Moses-Fields replied without hesitation. “It is not our intention to take land.”

Moses-Fields also agreed with newly elected Councilwoman Stacy Head, who said there is a “fundamental misunderstanding” that homes will be taken away if not gutted and boarded up by Aug. 29, and with newly elected Councilman Arnie Fielkow, who said Aug. 30 will not bring “expropriation” of residents’ property.

Quigley, referring to the massive scale of the devastation in the city, said there is much work still to be done in the community.

“It’s not going to be done by the 29th,” he said. “Things are tougher than we thought.”

Thomas suggested that residents not get overly nervous about the deadline.

“Just like we’ve done in the past with code enforcement, nothing will happen,” he said, predicting that the process will merely add to the city’s already lengthy blighted housing list.

Nagin allowed the ordinance to become law without his signature after expressing reservations.

New Orleanian Albert Clark, a community activist with MERGE, or Mobilization to End Racism in Government and Everywhere, did not buy Moses-Fields’ explanation.

“It’s not about getting it right. It’s about getting it white,” he charged. “It’s about trying to keep Africans out.”

Fielkow took exception to those remarks.

“This is not a black-white issue,” he said. “We need to take the issue of race, as much as we can, out of this discussion.”

ACORN member Joy Hess, whose Lakeview home was ravaged by Katrina’s floodwaters, said the ordinance would open the door for developers to come into the city and create unaffordable housing.

Hess said ACORN has gutted 1,400 homes in New Orleans and has another 1,000-plus on its waiting list. She said other community groups offering free gutting services have lengthy waiting lists.

If a resident is on a list to have his property gutted or demolished, Moses-Fields said, “You’ve done what you need to do.”

Mike Centineo, the city’s safety and permits director, said the city has issued 40,000 building permits since Katrina and another 40,000 electrical and mechanical permits.

“We have steady activity,” he said before the start of the meeting.

Centineo said residents can obtain free permits until Aug. 29 — Katrina’s anniversary. The city has been issuing free permits for eight months, he said.

“We’ve waived a lot of money,” he said, putting the amount at about $6.5 million.

Thanks to an ordinance passed by the council in May, much of the devastated Lower 9th Ward is exempt from the Aug. 29 deadline. The affected section is bounded by St. Claude Avenue, the Industrial Canal, Florida Avenue and the St. Bernard Parish line. The remainder of the neighborhood, between St. Claude and the Mississippi River, was not as badly devastated by floodwaters as the part north of St. Claude.

Moses-Fields said owners of flooded homes and businesses have three options: Gut, remediate and board up; renovate or rebuild; or demolish. If an owner does not take action, the building will be declared a public nuisance and “shall be abated by repair, rehabilitation, demolition or removal,” according to the ordinance.

As part of the city’s so-called Good Neighbor Plan, which seeks to educate owners of blighted properties on their options and the assistance available to them, a task force of city officials and neighborhood, nonprofit and faith-based organizations soon will begin posting “courtesy notices” on buildings that appear to be in need of remediation — reminding owners of the impending deadline, Moses-Fields said.

On Monday, the city will create an electronic database through its Web site — http://www.cityofno.com — on which residents, neighborhood groups and others can post the addresses of buildings that appear to be potential public nuisances or in imminent danger of collapse, she said. The city then will verify the condition of the properties and, if warranted, notify the owners to take action.

Property owners will be given a list of private groups that provide gutting services. If owners do not take corrective measures after the initial warning, she said, the city will send out notices giving them 10 days to take action or face the prospect that the city will seize and gut or raze their buildings. Administrative hearings will be held, she added.

Quigley said the city’s plan is constitutionally deficient in several ways, particularly when it comes to giving property owners “adequate notice.” He specifically targeted the 10-day period mentioned by Moses-Fields. New Councilman James Carter asked Quigley to produce a “draft ordinance” for the council’s consideration. Quigley said he would comply with Carter’s request.

Head said the Aug. 29 deadline aims to “help make our city a better place.” She said the city will use FEMA addresses and tax assessors’ rolls to notify displaced residents about the deadline.

Thomas said the city does not wish to “penalize” displaced residents who “really, really want to come back.”

“There’s enough pain and suffering out there,” he said, adding the city does not want to add to it.

Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who represents New Orleans East and Lower 9th, said she hopes the deadline finally will hold “absentee landlords” accountable. Carter called the ordinance “an attempt to move the city forward.” Fielkow said the city must move forward.

“We cannot sit in the sand as a community,” he said.

To view the online article, please click on the following link.

New Orleans Blight Update