[wvns] New Orleans Update
Friends:
Please share this letter with your friends, family and co-workers, so,
like you, they will not forget the importance of supporting the people
of New Orleans and the Gulf.
It may seem like old news, but surviving the reality of the
government's deliberate abandonment is still a daily trial for the
200,000 low income Black New Orleanians who remain displaced. It is
also an ordeal for the 150,000 who have returned to New Orleans— which
still lies mostly in ruins. In New Orleans, we see apartheid in
action. About 20% of the City which has always been predominantly
white—including the famed French Quarter—is "back in business". The
remaining 80% is a City without jobs, without housing, with no health
care system, and with a school system that fails to meet minimum
standards.
Despite the valiant efforts of thousands of volunteers who came to New
Orleans to rebuild, fewer than 20,000 of the 180,000 destroyed homes
have been rebuilt. New Orleans' housing stock, levees, hospitals and
schools cannot be built with volunteer labor. The federal government
must take responsibility for the reconstruction of New Orleans and the
Gulf.
For this reason, we ask you to continue to support the work of Peoples
Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF). Our priority has always been to
pressure the government to guarantee the right of return—especially
for the poor Black people it abandoned. So far, only grassroots
political pressure has prevented developers from razing public housing
and bulldozing the entire Lower 9th Ward so they can turn this
once-thriving Black community into golf courses and industrial parks.
For two years PHRF has persistently organized petition campaigns,
demonstrations, marches and lobbied at the City, state and federal
levels. We organized National Survivors' Tours, maintain an
informative website and most recently, the International Tribunal on
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to counter the national amnesia campaign
perpetrated by the government and developers.
We recognize that the displacement and destitution of New Orleans'
Black population is only the most obvious assault of a national system
of gentrification, ethnic cleansing, militarization, mass
incarceration and privatization that is laying siege to Black and
other people of color in every US city. The struggle for the right to
return and reconstruction is the challenge of all oppressed people.
And it is going to be a long struggle.
A dedicated staff and committed volunteers are essential to this work.
Since September 15, when PHRF `s account ran dangerously close to
zero, a decision to stop paying all salaries was made. But even if
staff can continue to work on a volunteer basis, rent, phones,
electricity and printing costs still must be paid.
While other organizations in New Orleans do important work, PHRF is
one of the only organizations that makes' political struggle its
priority. Our strategic focus is the demand for affordable
housing—both for the 49,000 displaced residents of public housing and
for New Orleans' homeless population, which is at twice pre-Katrina
levels. We also continue to pressure the Red Cross—a
quasi-governmental agency—to be accountable for distributing millions
of dollars that were donated to assist hurricane survivors, not the
Red Cross bureaucracy.
To those of you who understand the importance of this struggle, we
appeal for your financial support of our on-going work. Please visit
our website, www.peopleshurricane.org, for detailed information about
this work. Tax deductible donations can be made payable to PHRF in
care of the Vanguard Public Foundation. Mail checks to 383 Rhode
Island Street, Suite 301 San Francisco, CA 94103. Online donations can
also be made at https://www.vanguardsf.org /index.php?s=40.
For more information, to arrange a speaker and/or video presentation,
call us at 504-301-0215 or email info @ peopleshurricane.org.
Thank you in advance for your support,
Kali Akuno,
Executive Director
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