Sweatin for Justice: helping residents return to New Orleans

Public Housing Units in New Orleans, even the ones that were not damaged by the flood, have been boarded up and residents have been banned from returning to their homes. The insides of their homes have been dumped in the courtyard, full of washed away memories.

So a crew of 40 folks from the People's Freedom Caravan went to help clean up.


From the GlassEyes of SWU's Youth Leadership Organization

We did not know what to expect when we signed up for the debris clean up. For some odd reason we had the idea that we were going to be out with nails in our mouths building homes for the displaced Katrina victims. We loaded the bus at about 7:30 AM and headed to Congo Square to we pick up a representative who explained to us what exactly we would be doing for the day. He also told us the controversy behind what happened to the 9^th ward. It was very shocking to hear that the 80% of the people whose homes were damaged were African American. He also explained to us that the government wanted to pave over all of the housing projects and sell it to big companies like Home Depot or Wal-Mart. At roughly 8:30 we arrived at the Magnolia projects [CJ Peete Housing]. Before we started to clean up the debris we took a mini tour of the complex. It was very disturbing to see what once was a family’s home now resembles a war zone. Upon entering the first unit we noticed that broken glass covered the floors.

We went into what looked like a room that once belonged to a teenage boy. There were sneakers and deflated basketballs all over the floors. When we saw the amount of trash that there was it seemed very overwhelming and nearly impossible but everyone that went to help worked as a team and the task grew easier by the minute. We were throwing away beds, sofas, clothes, dressers, microwaves, TVs’, and other random personal belongings. The thing that got us the most was when we went into the rooms and saw the destruction that had happened because of Katrina. The rooms were full of debris and we saw personal belongings that were left behind such as photo albums with pictures dating back to 1977. In that same room also there was a letter that had a check from FEMA in it for $188.

Residents that had lived at the complex before Katrina hit were telling us what happened that day and how they had to be rescued by helicopters because they couldn’t leave on their own. They tried to go back about a month after the hurricane and they were forced out because the government had taken over and said they were trespassing onto their property.

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