Katrina Refugees Being Threatened By Landlords
We are beginning to see a pattern with landlords down south threatening to give tenants the boot if they don't pay the rent immediately or come and get their belongings, which is kind of difficult if they are relocated and without means to travel or pay their rent.
One guy last week returned to the area even though he had landed a job here [in California] and has no job to go back to there. His apartment is on the 3rd floor of a building that had its entire first floor under water. He didn't even know if he could get in when he got there. The landlady was even so blatant as to tell him that other people were in line for his apartment, so we are confident that she is part of the "price gouging" going on due to lack of "inhabitable" (loosely defined) housing in the region.
The lady we met today was nearly in tears as she recounted her interaction with her landlady in the Quarter. It is pretty much the same story. She is set to go back to New Orleans (round trip) to get her belongings out this weekend, but is very afraid of what she may find, if anything of her priceless art collection (she is an artist). Her last words to her neighbors downstairs was "bust in the door if the water gets any higher"! Now she is afraid they may have taken her up on it and even be living in her apartment when she gets there. There are no UHaul trucks available in any neighboring state or city, so luckily, we are sending a truckfull of donations there and will bring it back full of her household items and art collection.
Of course, you know my next question: who can help these people? What do you suggest? Its becoming a very common story just within our small band of refugees, and we feel just terribly about the situation.
The first guy has only been a U.S. citizen for 2 months (from Honduras) and the second woman is actually a Tulane grad student who is now being hosted by Stanford.
Thanks so much for anything you can do.