Court Battle over the Potential Holiday Eviction of 100 Algiers Families Begins
Residents under threat of eviction from the Woodlands will be going to court
on Tuesday, November 28, determined to fight for their homes. Outside the
courthouse residents and supporters will be demonstrating and speaking out
against evictions they view as illegal. These legal proceedings are a step
that residents hoped could be avoided. Many attempted to contact the new
owner, Soundra Johnson-Temple, personally, only to have their calls
unanswered. A delegation of tenants visited the home office of the Johnson
Properties Group, LLC, on November 21 to share documentation of the
improvements made in the last several months and a letter calling on the new
owner to honor the tenants’ residency, among other requests. There was no
reply. Mediation was offered at no cost by Community Mediation Services of
New Orleans, an option supported by the Louisiana NAACP, but received no
response.
WHERE: Second City Court, Historic Algeirs Courthouse,
225 Morgan St., Algiers (map)
WHEN: 8:30AM Tuesday, November 28, 2006 (court begins at 9)
Home for the holidays is the dream of these youngsters, who are threatened
with eviction Tuesday, Nov. 28, from the homes they love at the Woodlands in
New Orleans. The lack of affordable housing keeps hundreds of thousands of
New Orleanians away who yearn to return. While the government locks tenants
out of 5,100 units of public housing, Malik Rahim and Common Ground
Collective invited 100 families to make the Woodlands, a run down but
structurally sound complex, livable. As manager, expecting soon to own the
Woodlands, Common Ground froze the rents at pre-Katrina levels, fostered a
strong tenants union and ran a workers’ cooperative with paid trainees
busily renovating all 350 units. Suddenly discovering that the Woodlands had
been sold out from under them, Common Ground and the residents are fighting
to stay home for the holidays – and forever – and calling on supporters all
over the world to come to their rescue. Read “Save the Woodlands” to learn
how you can help.
More background information here www.commongroundrelief.org/
William M. Johnson {BJ}
{wmmj710@hotmail.com}
NYYork Rep Common Ground
*WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CANNOT REST*
