Protest denounces destruction of affordable housing

Three days before Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast, activists from Chinatown, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem, N.Y., demonstrated in support of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita survivors on Aug. 29, the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina survivors join housing activists at New York rally. WW photo: Anne Pruden

At a rally in Chinatown, speakers drew the parallels between the destruction and gentrification of working-class neighborhoods of color in New York, other U.S. cities and the plight of the survivors. “New Orleans had Katrina and we have a hurricane that is called NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority),” said Beverly Corvin, co-president of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE), a group that has organized against the demolition of public housing, especially for people of color, in Brooklyn.

Hurricane Katrina/Rita Survivor Assembly (Northeast region) co-coordinator Joetta Rogers, said: “Three years ago, the Gulf Coast was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans levees were breached, and reliable sources said sabotaged, causing thousands of people to be displaced.

“Our government has failed to apply the principles mandated by the United Nations to protect people from the Gulf Coast and New Orleans’ right to return,” she continued. Instead luxury homes have replaced the largely African-American working-class communities and she noted this is happening across the country.

Speakers denounced the criminalization of poor people and “unrestricted luxury development and privatization of public space and resources.” Right to the City, a coalition of organizations from the African-American, Chinese, Latin@, and LGBT communities denounced collaboration between the federal and city governments that has led to racist, working-class evictions in New York and throughout the U.S.

The Right to the City noted that as part of “globalization,” neoliberal policies have created worldwide a massive decrease in affordable housing for poor people.

A representative from the Chinatown Tenants Union /CAAV, acknowledging the severity of the housing crisis in Chinatown, said that the Chinese community stands in special solidarity with Katrina survivors who have been abandoned by the government to homelessness and deprivation.

New York City Councilperson Charles Barron denounced the New York City Council, which voted to put profits for billionaire developers before people’s needs. “No matter who is in power in Washington,” Barron said, “The struggle for affordable housing and for the rights of the Katrina/Rita survivors must continue”.

Marching from Chinatown, activists stopped at buildings where landlords are forcing people to move to make way for luxury apartments. Police prevented the demonstrators from protesting in front of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offices. HUD is a prime mover for the privatization and destruction of public housing nationally.

Brenda Stokely of the NY Solidarity with Katrina/Rita Survivors Coalition said the support of members of the Asian, Latin@ and other nonwhite communities in New York showed how oppressed groups are uniting in opposition to an attack on working people of color. “We are organizing in this city to fight, because housing is a right! Power to the People!”

A fundraiser for the New York City survivors was held later on that evening at Judson Memorial Church.