Survivors of Hurricane Katrina and the People's Organizing Committee are organizing a Come Back Home Campaign for the week of the one-year anniversary of the devastating hurricane. Displaced survivors who are living all over the country will gather in Washington, DC from August 24th through 26th. They will pitch tents and camp out on the federal government to demand their right to return home. On August 27th and 28th, these survivors will be pitch their tents in Baton Rouge, LA, in front of the state capitol to put pressure on the state government of Louisiana for their right to return home. On August 29th, 2006, the anniversary of the Katrina Disaster, survivors will make their demands to return home heard by the city council of New Orleans, and they will camp out on city hall.

The Come Back Home Campaign is a resident-led effort by survivors who have been severely impacted by the hurricane, and who have received the least assistance and resources from governments and their agencies. They plan to have at least 5,000 Katrina survivors bussed to D.C., Baton Rouge, and New Orleans from all across the U.S. They are focusing their efforts on bringing residents from seven states in the Southern Region-- Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida-- who are public housing residents, renters, and home owners that the city, state and federal government are trying to keep from returning home. Help and support in providing and arranging food, housing, medical providers, logistics, and advertising are needed in order to make this campaign a success. Read more

Thousands of families seem to have no hope of returning to New Orleans, where rental housing is scarce and costly. In New Orleans, public housing was occupied by women, mostly working, their children as well as the elderly and disabled. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said: "Any New Orleans voucher recipient or public housing resident will be welcomed home." However, HUD has fenced off their apartments, put metal shutters over their windows and doors, and it constantly expands its plans to demolish their homes. Bill Quigley's 6/19 report on HUD, subtitled "Go F(ind) Yourself (Housing)!"

In June, a Survivor's Village was set up outside the St. Bernard Housing Complex to demand safe, decent, and sanitary housing, the right to return for displaced New Orleans residents, the preservation and reopening of public housing in the city, and social, political and economic self- determination for the residents. Meanwhile, Bill Quigley reports that thousands of homes remain just as they were when the floodwaters receded – ghost-like houses with open doors, upturned furniture, and walls covered with growing mold. No federal housing repair or home reconstruction money has made it to New Orleans yet. Tens of thousands of people are waiting. Around the country, people are pointing out that the forms of assistance that aid agencies provide do not provide a foundation for recovery. They are "temporary solutions to a daily threat of elimination." Some residents have taken to direct action such as reopening public housing units.

People's Organizing Committee | Gerard Winstanley's Report from his May visit to New Orleans