What's next for Houma public housing tenants after apartments wiped out by Hurricane Ida?

Struggles continue for hundreds of low-income tenants displaced from two public housing sites nearly a year after devastating damage from Hurricane Ida.

Attorneys for tenants and the Houma-Terrebonne Housing Authority, which oversees the apartment complexes, say they are collaborating to produce solutions.

But for tenants forced to relocate far from home, away from doctors who treat them and schools their children attended, relief can’t come soon enough.

“I am believing that no one really cares about the situation I am dealing with because it’s not them having to deal with it,” said Ursula Ward, a Senator Circle resident now living in Metairie. “I’m not winning no kind of way and it’s very stressful.”

Ward is one of the residents from more than 500 apartments combined at the low-income Senator Circle housing site the Bayou Towers senior citizen buildings on West Park Avenue who had to make alternate living arrangements due to storm damage.

Housing vouchers through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were made available to many. But a shortage of housing locally due to the storm has resulted in many, like Ward, having to move elsewhere.

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A lawsuit against the Housing Authority was filed Feb. 25 in U.S. District Court in New Orleans on behalf of eleven tenants, including Ward. They had faced eviction from Senator Circle but maintain that once electric power was restored – more than two months after the storm – they should be allowed to remain in their otherwise livable apartments or return after repairs are made.

Among other complaints in the lawsuit is an allegation from tenants that they were not permitted to file grievances with the Housing Authority in accordance with HUD procedures.

Attorneys at the nonprofit Southeast Louisiana Legal Services were successful in blocking evictions of tenants from Senator Circle. But that was only one facet of a complex web of issues, said Legal Services lawyer Hannah Adams.

Adams and other attorneys representing the tenants, as well as attorneys representing the Housing Authority, said they are working together, hoping a cooperative approach will result in more formidable problem-solving.

“The Housing Authority is committed to housing its families and will do everything possible to ensure that the families have safe, quality housing, whether it is on a temporary or permanent basis following the disaster that is known as Hurricane Ida,” said Brandon DeCuir, a Baton Rouge attorney who represents housing agency.

DeCuir said because there is ongoing litigation, he is limited in what he can say about the case.

Adams said an important issue under discussion for Senator Circle residents is rent being charged for damaged apartments that cannot be occupied.

“We are trying to work with the Housing Authority to come up with a solution to make sure tenants are not being charged rent and make sure tenants who have nowhere to go have somewhere to go,” Adams said. “FEMA has been working to house tenants whose apartments need to be repaired. But the larger problem is that in the aftermath of the storm these tenants were provided with Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, and there is nowhere to use those housing vouchers locally due to depleted housing stock, rising rents and discrimination against voucher-holders.”

Similar problems, attorneys acknowledge, are being faced by seniors who had lived in Bayou Towers. Currently, none of the Bayou Towers apartments can be lived in. The Louisiana Fire Marshal’s Office issued a cease-and-desist order barring any occupancy at the Bayou Towers site due to dangerous conditions.

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The complex has not been condemned, however. No lawsuits have been filed at this point on behalf of Bayou Towers residents. Discussions regarding the complex, however, are ongoing as well.

As the Housing Authority and its attorneys, those for the tenants, and representatives from other agencies such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency seek solutions to the plight of Terrebonne’s vulnerable public housing tenants, they are keenly aware of a fact worthy of great concern.

The 2022 hurricane season is less than 2 months old, and as it wears on, representatives say, the potential threat of future storms looms, with last year’s disaster effects nowhere near being resolved.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: In Ida's wake: Bayou Towers in limbo, Senator Circle lawsuit continues