08-12-2007, 05:54 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Okolona, Ky.
Posts: 6,156
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Re-construction plan could use some oversight...
Home Razing Angering Owners in NOrleans
Aug 12, 2007: While Willie Ann Williams waited for federal aid to rebuild her home in the hurricane flooded 9th Ward, it was demolished - apparently by mistake.
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There was nothing left but bare dirt. A city official told her family the wood-frame house should not have been torn down, but no one has told them why it happened or what happens next. Williams had a building permit and wanted to fix up her house once she received money from the federally funded, state-run Road Home grant program. Now, with no house to repair, she's living in Franklinton, 70 miles away, and doesn't know whether she'll be able to come back, said Williams' daughter, Vonder McNeil.
Confusion reigns with the approach of an Aug. 29 deadline - the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina - for the city to tell federal authorities which properties it wants demolished. Homes that were only damaged have wound up on a list of 1,700 condemned properties. Some houses on the list have been gutted for rebuilding or are in move-in condition. Angry homeowners are besieging City Council members and camping out at city offices. "Do Not Demolish" signs are posted on porches, and some owners are hiring lawyers for a possible legal fight.
Homeowner Brick Mason posted his lawyer's telephone number on his house along with the "Do Not Demolish" sign. The process of finding and condemning unsafe homes is "not perfect, but it's working," city spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said. The city says some houses must be torn down to ensure public safety. Some houses still contain moldy debris, the city says. Residents have complained about rats, trash piles and unkempt, overgrown yards in slow-to-rebound neighborhoods. Some houses look like they might collapse at any time.
However, the city cannot define the criteria it uses to declare property an imminent threat to health and safety. Quiett said the city's only intent is to "get consumers to act as quickly as possible so neighborhoods can come back." But wide differences in the appearance of condemned properties on the list of 1,700, published in local newspapers, has fueled suspicion.
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