South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 4, Ed. 1, February, 2007 Page: 4 of 8
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Page4
New Orleans
continued from pg. 1
over how soon their landlord was
going to repair the property."
The Gretna Project volunteers
interviewed residents about the
habitability of their homes and
whether or not they had a place to
live besides the FEMA trailer. The
students also informed residents of
their right to appeal. Also, the
volunteers organized the
paperwork and wrote letters of
intent to appeal the ordinance,
which they delivered to city hall
While some students walked the
streets of Gretna, others were
getting hands-on experience with
workers in New Orleans. 3L Steve
Houchin and 2L Jamie Takaki
worked for the New Orleans
Workers' Center for Racial Justice
with STCL Associate Dean
Catherine Burnett and Professor
Cherie Taylor.
The Workers' Center volunteers
set out early in the morning to
observe interactions between day
laborers, police and contractors.
Because of recent allegations of
police abuse toward immigrant
workers, the Workers' Center
decided to send legal observers to
witness any problems and to speak
to the workers. The observers also
interviewed die laborers to see if
they had unpaid wage claims.
The STCL volunteers were
making a difference. One organizer
told Jamie Takaki that with the legal
observers there, the workers
seemed less intimidated by the
police because they knew someone
was diere to protect their rights. 'It
was amazing to see how a person's
confidence grows when they know
their rights are protected," said
Takaki
Steve Houchin, through a
Spanish interpreter heard firsthand
how immigrants feel about the
treatment they receive. "One of the
laborers told us that people Swill
brake for dogs, but they won't brake
for us.' The realization of how
poorly people can treat other was
sobering."
The Workers' Center volunteers
took their legal observation skills
further down the road, riding the
Louisiana Swift bus from New
Orleans to Baton Rouge and back.
The Swift is a bus that transports
workers from the FEMA trailer
parks and other housing in Baton
Rouge to New Orleans, and the
government has been threatening
to discontinue the service, claiming
that it is underused. "But when we
rode the bus, it was packed," said
Takaki. Unfortunately, affordable
housing is still an issue in New
Orleans, so the former residents
working in New Orleans have no
choice but to take the bus.
2Ls Amanda Lynn Chase,
Yvette Feay and Rachel Rounsavall
got a taste of the housing problems
in New Orleans through their
volunteer experience at People's
Organizing Committee, a
subcommittee of the New Orleans
Survivors' Council, a group
working to bring the lower income
black residents back to New
Orleans and rebuild the
community. Feay and Rounsavall
got their hands dirty gutting houses
in the lower 9th ward, complete with
Tyvek suits, rubber gloves, work
gloves, dust masks, goggles, and
boots. The items left in the houses
struck Feay as particularly
poignant. "When we got to the
back apartment, the bedrooms
were still filled with children's
clothes and toys. I remember
distinctly seeing a cell phone lying
on the floor. No teenager would
leave home without their phone -
by choice."
In addition to construction
work, the volunteers spent much
of their time organizing residents.
Chase made phone calls to people
in the 7th and lower 9th wards,
informing them about
neighborhood meetings. The
volunteers also went door to door,
speaking to residents. As she
interacted with others, Chase felt
the impact of the work she was
doing. "As we went door to door,
we were often die first white people
to listen to the residents' stories
about how they witnessed their
neighbors floating dead outside
their homes."
The experience with People's
also had a profound impact on
Feay. During the first day, she felt
that the organization was extreme,
using words like "genocide" and
"deliberate" to describe what
happened to people at the
Superdome. She thought the
message was abrasive.
"I thought to myself, this is
America. This can't be true," said
Feay. "Or Could it be? Each day I
listened to the organizer explain the
situation from a totally different
perspective from mine. I resisted
the words and their meaning, but
went to work to try to find the
answers. I drove past an
undamaged public housing project
that had metal gates on every door
and window to keep people from
coming back. I drove to the lower
9* ward to gut a house and saw
complete devastation 16 months
after the hurricane. I visited a
FEMA trailer park. Each day the
organizer's message was less and
less extreme. The trip forced me
to open my eyes and see that the
City of New Orleans and most
Americans do not care about poor
black people. If we did, we would
be doing something about it."
Everyone on the trip was
shocked to find out that the state
and national housing authorities,
Housing Authority of New
Orleans (HANO) and the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD), are
not reopening public housing
projects that were virtually
undamaged after the hurricane.
Many residents are demanding a
return to their former homes, but
HANO/HUD is literally locking
February 2007
them out "It was frustrating to
drive by the LaFitte housing project
everyday and know that HUD was
locking people out of housing not
impacted by die hurricane," shared
Feay. "It is hard for me to
understand how a city in America
Can care so little for its own people.
It is hard to understand how a city
can bar the doors of undamaged
homes and not let people return."
"The public housing situation
was nauseating," stated Chase. "I
saw that the state and local
governments didn't want low
income black residents to more
into the lower 9th because the
government restricted access to
their schools, community centers,
didn't allow public transportation
to go back into the lower 9th, nor
had any plans to restore running
water, electricity or phone lines
there."
"I was really impacted by how,
15 months after the storm, so many
problems have yet to be addressed,
that these issues seem to fall on the
backburner because the tourist
parts are up and going," said
Houchin.
The STCL students and faculty
on the trip felt like what they saw
and heard on the trip affected
them. For many, the trip was life-
changing, and they would
recommend that other STCL
students consider participating in
future Student Hurricane Network
trips, both in New Orleans and in
efforts here in Houston. 'The trip
is a great experience," said Takaki.
"It's best to approach it with an
open mind and patience."
For more information on
upcoming volunteers trips to New
Orleans, contact the Public Interest
Law Society at STCL via email:
stclpils@gmailcom To learn more
about the Student Hurricane
Network's efforts in the Gulf
Coast, visit
www studenthurricanenetwork.org/
Pictured on the left is tne
9th W&rd of New Or-
leans. A lot of Mew
Orleansers continue to
have a hard time finding
adequate and affordable
housing.
Pictured above is South
Texas College of Law
students and faculty en-
joying traditional New
Orleans-style food. The
Cajun food makes up a
big part of the culture.
iv - "■■ ^ .• ;/ .
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Frazer, Jason L. South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 4, Ed. 1, February, 2007, newspaper, February 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144580/m1/4/: accessed May 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.