Housing

Katrina/Tsunami Transnational Exchange

In late August of 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita left a path of destruction and serious human rights concerns in their wake. The storms displaced hundreds of thousands of people, who consequently were entitled to the human rights protections defined by the United Nations in the Guiding Principles on the Rights of Internally Displaced People. Survivors, however, were abandoned by their government both during and after the storms. Promises that were made in the wake of the storms by the national government have failed to materialize, leaving many communities on their own to piece together their fractured lives relying on community resources and charity alone.

The hurricanes devastated the Gulf Coast and their reach encompassed issues such as the right to return, the right to sustainable rebuilding, the right to a healthy environment, the right to housing and the rights of migrant workers. As the severity of the human rights crisis became increasingly clear, post Katrina and Rita organizing has inspired a range of coalitions from diverse communities and locales. The national and international collective organizing and solidarity that has emerged is probably one of the greatest hallmarks of the post recovery efforts.

In partnership with advocates and community organizers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Thailand and Indonesia, NESRI helped to facilitate solidarity through information sharing and exchange between Gulf Coast hurricane survivor activists and Asian tsunami survivor activists. The major objective of this project was to pass on best practices and strategies for post-disaster rebuilding that is grounded in community participation and human rights principles.

Members of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) and Tsunami Survivor Network, who have been applying innovative and effective strategies for rebuilding villages damaged by the tsunami and other disasters, visited New Orleans in June 2006 to assess the situation and meet with community groups. Subsequently, two delegations of community groups traveled to Indonesia and Thailand in September and October 2006 to visit local projects and learn from their model. Members of ACHR and the Tsunami Survivor Network then visited the Gulf Coast during the week of July 1-6, 2007.

Participants from the Gulf Coast included...

Latosha Brown (Mississippi & Alabama) is the Executive Director of Saving Our Selves (SOS), a coalition of over 117 groups with historical ties, contacts and interests to these low and moderate-income rural communities.
Victoria Cintra (Mississippi) is a Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA) organizer who is leading the charge across the region battling for the rights of the foreign-born while driving around, organizing, documenting abuses, and demanding justice.
Elvis Cintra-Licea (Mississippi) also works with the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA).
Pam Dashiell (Louisiana) is a part of the Holy Cross Neighbrohood Association in New Orleans.
Reverend Lois Dejean (Louisiana) is the director of the Gert Town Revival Initiative (GRI) in New Orleans, where she advocates for environmental justice. Rev. Dejean and GRI are currently involved in obtaining property in the Gert Town neighborhood that has been adjudicated to the city of New Orleans so that the property can be repaired and offered to individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Reverend Frederick Fields (Louisiana) pastor of Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Slidell, LA, has been bringing people together and coordinating volunteers and victims of all faiths.
Sam Jackson (Louisiana) has been actively advocating for poor and low income residents of New Orleans public housing since Hurricane Katrina. As a resident of B.W. Cooper Housing Complex, he has been instrumental in voicing the plight facing public housing residents to local, national and even international audiences. Sam is also the founder of May Day New Orleans, a public housing resident organization that seeks to ensure adequate affordable housing in New Orleans' rebuilding efforts.
Endesha Juakali (Louisiana) is a community leader in New Orleans, "Survivors Village", St. Bernard Public Housing Project.
Father Hongdung Van Lukenguyen (Lousiana) is a Priest and community leader at Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church in New Orleans East.
Geina Taylor (Louisiana) works with Pam Dashiel in the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association in New Orleans.
Nathalie Walker (Louisiana) co-founded Advocates for Environmental Human Rights (AEHR), a public interest law firm. The mission of AEHR is to defend the fundamental human right to a healthy environment. AEHR provides a broad range of legal and public advocacy services to communities where the rights to life, health, and racial equality are systematically violated by governmental laws, policies, and practices that deny human rights and facilitate and perpetuate environmental racism.
Viola Washington (Louisiana) works with the Gentilly Welfare Rights Union and People's Hurricane Relief Fund.

Upon returning to Asia, members of the Indonesian delegation were so outraged by the deprivations facing New Orleans residents that they staged a protest in front of the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia where they demanded that the U.S. government respect the human rights of hurricane survivors and, in particular, their human right to housing.