Despite a confrontational city council meeting on Dec. 20, Bishop Charles E. Jenkins said he and the Diocese of Louisiana remain committed to the ministry of housing in New Orleans.

 

“The violence and unrest in and in front of City Hall today was an unnecessary and most regrettable situation,” Bishop Jenkins said in a statement published on an internet blog he maintains. “I was not part of that and disassociate myself from it. I was among those who could not get into City Hall, but I understood that had I been there earlier, before the capacity for safety was reached, I would likely have been admitted. I departed when the crowd grew unruly.”

 

While the diocese continues to clean and rebuild houses, the New Orleans City Council recently approved plans by the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to proceed with demolition of another 4,600 units of abandoned public housing damaged by Hurricane Katrina in September 2005. HUD has announced plans to demolish more than 30,000 public housing units deemed substandard in the coming months.

 

The ongoing demolition of abandoned units, many of which contain squatters, will contribute to a critical housing shortage beginning in April 2008 when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said it intends to complete removal of temporary trailer housing for another 30,000 Katrina evacuees. Bishop Jenkins believes FEMA officials are encouraging the low-income trailer residents to relocate away from New Orleans.

 

At a hastily-called meeting religious and relief agency leaders on Dec. 19, FEMA announced plans to construct 6,000 new, low-income housing units, but construction on those has not begun. Bishop Jenkins and other religious and relief agency leaders believe that some of the public housing should be repaired and made available to the evicted trailer residents temporarily until new public housing is available.

 

Although he was unsuccessful in his attempt to petition the city council to halt the public housing demolition, Bishop Jenkins had better success when he wrote to the Speaker of the House and to the Majority Leader of the Senate earlier in the week. They have asked President George W. Bush to impose a 60-day moratorium on all New Orleans public-housing demolitions while Congress investigates some of the facts in dispute.

 

Bishop Jenkins told The Living Church the decision to continue with the trailer evictions greatly increases the chances that the vast majority of the New Orleans’ diaspora, largely black and often poor, will not return to the city.

 

“I cannot prove it, but there certainly seems to be a plan to change the racial composition of this city,” Bishop Jenkins said. “There is a serious disconnect between the claims of the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the experiences of those in the diaspora who want to come home. HANO says there is an abundance of housing going without takers. Residents tell me they cannot get HANO to admit them to a home.”

 

Bishop Jenkins responded on his blog to those who have questioned his decision to bring the office of bishop into the public arena as an advocate for public housing and others who believe he is trying to rally support for failed, big-government policies of the past.

 

“The issue before us is not buildings, but people,” Bishop Jenkins said. “As the Christ child had no place but a manger to lay his head, so it is that many children in New Orleans and of the New Orleans diaspora have no place to call home.”

 

Bishop Jenkins own house was destroyed by the storm. Once a disaster region moves beyond the immediate relief stage, Bishop Jenkins said, only the church will continue to stand for the dignity and value of all people.

 

“Too often we pay only lip service to the poor,” he added. “Living through this has deepened my sense of vocation and my sense of duty toward serving the poor.”

 

Steve Waring

 

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