Edwards Statement On New Orleans City Council Vote To Approve Demolition Of Public Housing

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Today, Senator Edwards released the following statement on the New Orleans City Council's approval of the HUD plan to begin demolishing public housing in New Orleans:

"I am disappointed in the decision today by the New Orleans City Council to approve the demolition permits that HUD needs to begin demolition of public housing in New Orleans. As I've said before, knocking down historic and livable housing that withstood the winds of Katrina is counterproductive to the goal of giving residents a home to which to return. Decentralizing poverty by encouraging new mixed-income income makes a lot of sense – I've proposed creating 1 million new housing vouchers to do exactly that. But eliminating housing where people could live – in a city with a desperate shortage of shelter – makes no sense at all."