Edwards Statement On Hud Plan To Begin Demolishing Public Housing In New Orleans This Week

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Senator John Edwards today called on HUD to reverse its plan to begin demolishing public housing in New Orleans this week and urged the New Orleans City Council to stand strong in defending housing for city residents. Edwards said in a statement:

"There is a housing crisis in New Orleans today – the result of government policies that have failed the people of the Gulf since Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Rents have doubled, families are being evicted from FEMA trailers and now the current administration is now trying to make a bad situation worse.

"I am calling on HUD to postpone its plans to destroy affordable public housing until replacement housing is ready. Knocking down historic and livable housing today that withstood the winds of Katrina with the bulldozers of Bush is counterproductive to the goal of giving residents a home to which to return. Decentralizing poverty by encouraging new mixed-income income makes a lot of sense – I've proposed creating 1 million new housing vouchers to do exactly that. But eliminating housing where people could live in a city where a desperate shortage of shelter exists makes no sense at all.

"I urge the City Council to reject the demolition permits HUD needs for its plan to destroy hope for current and displaced New Orleans residents."