FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 24, 2006

HOME DEPOT TAKES OVER LAND USED FOR PUBLIC HOUSING
CALL TO ACTION

Contact:
*Diana Chastain, Home Depot Real Estate Director: (972) 402 3847
*Home Depot Corporate Office: (770) 433 8211
* New Orleans Public Housing Office: (504) 589 7251

Home Depot has obtained a lease with the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO). The leased land had previously been used for public housing before Hurricane Katrina, and should now be used as a site for FEMA trailers or long-term housing for returning residents. They are creating a temporary building supply store using a large tent, with the intention to later purchase the land in order to build a permanent Home Depot store on the same location.

The lease they have signed includes six acres of vacant land belonging to the C. J. Peete public housing complex, where several homes had previously been bulldozed. In a city where vacant land is an invaluable commodity, desperately needed to house returning hurricane survivors, Home Depot is only paying $10,000 per month. Cleverly, their lease expires after 364 days. This allows them to avoid having a public hearing being called, which is required for leases 365 days or longer. Instead of a public hearing, the lease was approved by a one person committee, Mirza Negron Morales, from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

As Home Depot prepares to settle into its newly acquired space, ninety percent of 5,146 families living in public housing prior to Hurricane Katrina are still displaced from their homes. Less than 1,000 of the 9,000 residents with section 8 vouchers have managed to find housing in New Orleans. HANO claims that re-occupancy of the C.J. Peete site is, “taking place in a more strategic manner”. One must wonder exactly what kind of strategy involves selling land to corporations that could be used to rebuild affordable long-term housing or become a much needed site for the ever elusive FEMA trailers for otherwise homeless survivors.
N.O. H.E.A.T. (New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team) is currently exploring every available option and working with outraged residents to stop Home Depot from moving in to C.J. Peete. Since many of you cannot come to New Orleans to join this struggle, we ask that you support these displaced survivors by calling Home Depot's Corporate Office and telling them exactly what you think of their schemes.

Further Information:
People's Hurricane Relief Fund: www.communitylaborunited.net
N.O. H.E.A.T.: www.no-heat.org