Preliminary Findings Released by UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing

Raquel Rolnik, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, has released the Preliminary Findings from her visit to the US (including a visit to New Orleans on October 30).

The report reads, in part, "As in the case with policies for homelessness, criminalization has been the main response to social problems in subsidized housing, instead of a focus on protection for those who are most vulnerable. In designing solutions, tenants, residents, and community members have been excluded from decision making processes regarding their housing and wider communities."

Among the many recommendations from the preliminary findings are several that will resonate strongly with people from New Orleans, such as, "New housing should be available for displaced residents before any unit is demolished;" and "Following demolition or rehabilitation, residents' right to return must be ensured to the area where new developments are located."

More updates from the Special Rapporteur's visit to the US can also be seen at the blog restorehousingrights.org, and more about the mandate and work of the Special Rapporteur can be seen here.

To see more about the US and its reporting on the international treaties it has signed, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has a page dedicated to updates on the status of the US.

Thank you to the many organizers, locally and nationally, who made the Rapporteur's visit happen, especially Mayday New Orleans, who coordinated locally, and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative who worked to coordinate the trip on a national level.

LJI Community Profile: Housing Advocate Sam Jackson Speaks Out About Tomorrow's Visit From The UN

Sam Jackson is a housing activist and the founder of the housing rights organization May Day New Orleans. Below is a short discussion with Sam about tomorrow's visit from United Nations Special Rapporteur on Housing Raquel Rolnik.

LJI: What should New Orleanians know about tomorrow's visit from the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing?
Sam: This is a very important visit for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Having these high profile international guests should bring hope to all us concerned about Gulf Coast recovery, because it shows that even if our government doesn't view adequate housing as a human right, maybe there are people around the world that do.

LJI: What is adequate housing?
Sam: Decent housing, low income housing, fair housing. Anything that would make a family comfortable. For instance, folks in New Orleans can't afford to rent right now. We need adequate, affordable housing, so low income folks can have a place to stay.

LJI: What can the UN do to improve conditions on the Gulf Coast?
Sam: I'll be honest with you. The UN cant do anything directly. They can't change US law. They can't bring a lawsuit. But what the UN can do, they can raise questions with the US government about these issues, and bring international pressure on the US to do something. They can raise the issue about doing something to fix some of our laws - like the Stafford Act, which doesn't guarantee any kind of rights to the victims of disasters.

As it is now, we cant get anyone in the government to pay attention to what happened here. So we bring in the UN representatives and let them know what's happening, and then people start to ask, why do we have to get folks from outside the country to come visit us? Why couldn't we get folks from our own government to visit?

That's why we need international pressure. The UN is important for the pressure they bring. And this is not just for New Orleans, this is happening in six cities. This visit has already been a major event in New York and all other places they've been visiting.

LJI: Why should people from New Orleans come out tomorrow night to make their voices heard by the UN?
Sam: I urge people to participate, come out and speak their mind. Folks got human rights. All of us. Folks need to come out to let the world know what happened here. I would say to people: This is your country, most of you have lived for generations and generations here. If you don't fight now, our grandchildren will be going through the same thing. Right now, all around the US, the poor is really left out. This could be a once in a lifetime chance to do something that takes this struggle up to another level.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Housing Coming to New Orleans This Weekend

Is New Orleans’ housing crisis a human rights violation? United Nations Special Rapporteur on Housing Raquel Rolnik will be in New Orleans this week gathering evidence. Local housing activists and national human rights advocates have arranged a town hall meeting this Friday for New Orleanians to speak up and be heard.

Rolnik’s visit is part of an official mission to the United States from October 22nd - November 8th. This will be the first-ever official country visit to the United States by a Special Rapporteur on Housing. The Special Rapporteur is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on the housing situation of a given country.

The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty will be coordinating the visit, with significant involvement from grassroots groups around country - including MayDay New Orleans.

The visit will focus on public housing, Section 8, homelessness and the foreclosure crisis. The Rapporteur's office has selected Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, DC, Pine Ridge, South Dakota and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for site visits. The New Orleans visit will be a follow-up to the recent International Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (AGFE) fact-finding mission.

NESRI's Human Right to Housing Program Director Tiffany Gardner comments, "Mrs. Rolnik's U.S. visit is profoundly important because it recognizes that Americans do have a human right to housing and that right is so deeply imperiled that it merits international monitoring at the moment."

The meeting is this Friday, October 30th at 6:30 pm at St. Bernard Church, 3938 St. Bernard Ave. For more information, call 504 319 3300.