Comments on: Puzzle

By: Alan’s Blogometer » Blog Archive » How You Can Perpetuate Poverty for Generations and Make Big $$$

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:51:35 +0000

[...] Everson writes about Section 8 housing in Puzzle. She shared some of the particulars of her financial situation. The Housing Authority of New [...]

By: Banzai Bill

Banzai Bill — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:07:08 +0000

“Squatting” IS legal in New Orleans. You have to file paperwork with the City to do it, but if you make a claim on an abandoned house (I believe you must make an effort to contact the current owner to make your intent known) and maintain it for three years, it’s all yours. If the previous owner makes a claim to take back the house and you have made renovations, the previous owner must pay you back for your renovation costs.

One source that may also provide answers is the NHS in the Feret neighborhood (though I believe they have moved their offices to another site temporarily). Loren Anderson or any of her staff could provide some ideas on how to find and take advantage of a Section 8 Homeownership Program.

By: Alan Gutierrez

Alan Gutierrez — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:21:29 +0000

And the Colosseum Baptist Church was lost to squatters, they say.

By: Alan Gutierrez

Alan Gutierrez — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:20:28 +0000

I’m not impressed with Habitat for Humanity. They are a new construction solution in a city full of valuable historic construction. If you’ve ever been by the Clown Village they erected, you’d see that it’s a bunch of modular housing in a historic neighborhood.

I’d like to see a strategy that employed our irreplaceable housing stock. It is unique to the U.S. It is pound for pound worth more than anything that could be constructed today.

I know that people who need housing don’t want to play “This Old House”. That’s a barrier. How do you make it so that it is about people and not about houses?

By: jenn

jenn — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 03:46:29 +0000

how about habitat for humanity?

also that squatting idea sounds like the result of some dorm room bull session there are buildings burning down due to squatters

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:50:02 +0000

Get in touch with Kevin Brown at Trinity. They are working on this issue.

By: Alan Gutierrez

Alan Gutierrez — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:16:38 +0000

Legalizing squatting is an extreme response. It would be much better to simply change the way in which properties are handled by the city. The “Lot Next Door”:http://thinknola.com/blog/think/2007/04/16/the-lot-next-door/ program is stalling. It’s a popular program where neighbors can by neglected properties on their block.

Bartender J, before legalizing squatting, I’d rather see that we don’t create a strange system where the city holds onto properties that are deteriorating and doesn’t act on them because they consider them capitol, as was proposed in the “Blight Bonds” idea. We need our real estate market to stay lively.

As far as the $1,300 for Section 8, it would be better to find some way to encourage home ownership, rather than subsidize neglect.

By: Bartender J

Bartender J — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:48:31 +0000

What a horrible, cruel joke. Seems to me that squatting should be relegalized there. What hurt could it be, to have someone occupying space that otherwise is turning to weeds?