New Orleans Residents Face Eviction From Homes as Rents Skyrocket

They are victims of a combination of massive forced evictions taking place throughout the city, a failure of the city to reopen public housing projects and price gouging that is raising rents as much as three times as high as their pre-Katrina level. Again, it is mostly the poor, and African-Americans who face these conditions.

Louisiana had some of the weakest tenant protection laws in the nation even before Katrina hit. And in the weeks after the storm, landlords began evicting thousands of people a day, most of whom had evacuated the city. The landlords cite increased insurance costs and the need to repair damaged property. They also point out that neither FEMA nor the state, are helping them to pay their bills. But there have been many reports of landlords jacking up the rents of undamaged property and evicting people who tried to pay their rent.

The vast majority of public housing units in the city have also not been reopened, even though it is estimated that about half of the units are either ready for occupation or can easily be made so.

* Ishmael Muhammad, an attorney with the Advancement Project which is part of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund.
* Sonia Kahn, is being evicted from her apartment in New Orleans.

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