PRESS RELEASE - Woodlands Residents to City Council –Help Us Find Homes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – PHOTO OPPORTUNITY 12/13/06

Contact: Soleil Rodrigue, Legal Coordinator, 504-717-7324
Don Paul, Chief Operations Coordinator, 504-421-2706

Woodlands Residents to City Council –Help Us Find Homes

New Orleans, LA (December 14, 2006) –With evictions looming, residents of the Woodlands apartment complex in Algiers will be asking New Orleans City Council members to turn the commitments of assistance made on November 2 into homes before January 4, 2007. A press conference will be held Thursday at 9:30am outside City Hall.

Residents will be requesting the help of City Council members in finding affordable housing during the holiday season. In a market where housing is already scarce, the challenge of finding housing during the holidays, a time when most business will cease, is making it even more difficult for families facing eviction. Many of those looking for housing have not been able to find comparable housing to meet their needs, and those who have are facing rents that are far higher than those they had been paying during Common Ground’s management of the property.

Given these hardships, tenants will ask that city council support and facilitate the mass transfer of residents to another, comparable housing complex, such as was suggested by District Court Judge K. K. Norman in a pre-trial conference on November 28. They will also request the immediate conveyance of Section 8 vouchers or the like to the residents in need, such as suggested by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's office on November 28.

At a November 2, 2006 City Council meeting Councilman-at-Large and City Council Vice-President Arnie Fielkow promised to work with Councilman James Carter and with the support of City Council to aid Woodlands tenants fighting against eviction. City Council President Oliver M. Thomas, Jr. further offered the support of New Orleans Law Enforcement agencies to Woodlands tenants.

An agreement reached on November 28 in a pre-trial conference in front of Second City Court Judge Mary Norman gave tenants until January 4, 2007 to find new housing. Though this agreement came as a relief to those fearing immediate eviction, it also provided little time to find new affordable housing in a market where rents are estimated to be as much as 70% higher than pre Katrina.