The right to housing in New Orleans

author : Marco Rosaire Rossi topic : New Orleans | Hurricane Katrina

by Marco Rosaire Rossi

On Dec. 10, 2007, activists around the United States converged in New Orleans to join the Stop the Demolition Coalition. The coalition’s goal is to prevent the Department of Housing and Urban Development from following through with its plan to bulldoze 4,600 low-income apartments. The plan is part of a federal and municipal government effort to “rebuild” New Orleans after the devastating affects of Hurricane Katrina. Since Katrina, housing has become the issue of New Orleans: over 12,000 people are homeless, 50,000 remain in FEMA trailers, and another 900,000 are awaiting federal funds to rebuild their homes.

The date of the convergence was chosen for a reason: It’s International Human Rights Day. Members of the Stop the Demolition Coalition are expected to sign a pledge which states: “I believe in the fundamental human right to housing, and I will not be a witness to the denial of this right to the peoples of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.” The activists are not alone in their proclamation that housing is a human right. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including… housing.”

The United States helped draft the UDHR, and the chair of the committee, Eleanor Roosevelt, once referred to it as the “new Magna Carta,” but that is as far as the US has gone in recognizing all its provisions. Since that time the political culture in the US has been divided into two anti-UDHR wings. On one side are those who share the view of UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who described the provisions of the Universal Declaration dealing with economic, social, and cultural rights as “a letter to Santa Claus” that “Neither nature, experience, nor probability informs these lists of ‘entitlements,’ which are subject to no constraints except those of the mind and appetite of their authors.” On the other side are those who believe that while economic, social, and cultural rights may not be a “letter to Santa Claus,” they aren’t important. Civil and political rights take priority and must be immediately recognized, while economic, social, and cultural rights can be gradually developed over time. Neither view is congruent with the preamble of the UDHR, which calls on states “to promote respect for these rights and…to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance.” The review was reiterated in 1993 by the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights which stated that all human rights are “indivisible, interdependent, and universal.”

The UDHR is a moral document, not a legal one. It’s a resolution that was passed by the UN general assembly – not an international treaty. However, since 1966, there has existed the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights which not only legally protects the right to housing but also the right to education, to a job, to protection from unemployment, to healthcare, to social security, to join trade unions and to strike, among many others. It is not surprising – considering its disdain for such rights – that the US has neglected to sign this treaty. The neglect is grossly out of line with the feelings of the American people. A poll done by World Public Opinion in 2004, found that 90% agreed (and 66% strongly agreed) with the statement that: “Because the world is so interconnected today it is important for the US to participate, together with other countries, in efforts to maintain peace and protect human rights.” In this way the United States government has failed its people.

Where the US government has failed, the Stop the Demolition Coalitions hopes to succeed. Bill Quigley, an attorney fighting for the right to housing in New Orleans, put the matter this way: “Human rights are enforced by humans. Hopefully they’re enforced by the courts. Hopefully they’re enforced by the legislature and the like. But if they’re not, it’s our responsibility to enforce those human rights. And the human right to housing and the human right to be treated fairly and the human right not to be subjected to racial discrimination and economic injustice is a right that we’re going to have to try to enforce ourselves.” So far, this “self-enforcement” has worked. Protesters have temporarily stopped the demolition of the B.W. Cooper housing site in New Orleans. More demonstrations at local and federal government buildings are scheduled.

How long this protest will last and how successful it will be remains to be seen, but with consistence and determination eventually there will be a year when Americans can celebrate the right to housing, rather than always fighting for it.

[Editor’s Note: On December 20, the New Orleans City Council voted to proceed with demolition of the B.W. Cooper housing project, despite protests outside the City Council chambers. Demonstrators were pepper-sprayed, and 15 were arrested.]

Marco Rosaire Rossi is a student in the Masters in International Law Program at the United Nations mandate school the University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica.