We turn to New Orleans and the ongoing problem residents face in securing housing after Hurricane Katrina.
AMY GOODMAN: Malik Rahim joins us now from New Orleans, the Co-Founder of the Common Ground Collective. Welcome Malik Rahim.
MALIK RAHIM: Thank you Amy, it�s an honor to be on your show.
AMY GOODMAN: It's great to be with you. Tell us what is happening in your neighborhood, in Algiers, at this Woodlands Complex.
MALIK RAHIM: Well, what has happened is, Anthony Reginelli, purchased the Woodlands in 2000, for $900,000. From 2000, up until Katrina hit, he was averaging -- he was net averaging $1 million a year. He also borrowed $5 million on the development. And then in return, after Katrina, he waited 2 1/2 months before he even returned. By then, the development was out of control. And he wouldn't invest nothing into providing any services.
By the time we came in, in April, the place was in a shamble. The grass was maybe about four or five feet high and it was full of trash. All the units was--had been vandalized. And the place was just in an uproar, residents was living in fear.
They had contacted us, we came in. We met with Reginelli, and the commitment was that he had an offer on the table to purchase the development, but that offer was based upon this company receiving tax credits, that should�ve been June the 15th. That was the day aligned for the awarding of the contract�the tax credits. The day they didn't receive the tax credit, then he was suppose to enter into agreement with us to purchase.
In good faith we took over management. We cleaned up the crack houses, went in and cleaned up the development. We had became the largest employers in New Orleans of at-risk residents. We was employing 41 residents, 20 in a training program that we had established. Six hours a day, $10 an hour, 5 hours on the job training, 1 hour on group sessions. Because of the fact that in New Orleans after Katrina, the federal government, the state government, the local government refused to even attempt to do any type of trauma counseling. So, we established our own. We established a youth program that we call Kids and Community. Every other weekend, we gave a unity in the community barbecue and seafood burrow. We took 100 kids out of the local high school and we gave them $50 a month, to teach them civic responsibility. And all this was improving. We made a big difference in this community.
What we later found out is that Reginelli, had no intention of selling it to us. You know that, at the same time, he was steady telling us, yeah, he was going to sell it to us, yeah, he was going to go forward with the purchase agreement, we later found out that he had no intentions. That he helped create the Johnson Group. He helped them to establish. He helped them by even, helping them with their purchase, not only their purchasing agreement, but the financing of the Woodlands. And then he came in at the last minute. He sold it on Halloween. And the next day, he came in and gave residents a nine-day notice. You know and now he's saying that he didn't know that the apartments was being leased out. But he's a lawyer, and he had been there ever since the beginning that we have been there. You know so, -- it's just a continuous mess that New Orleans has festered into.
AMY GOODMAN:So Malik Rahim, you go to court tomorrow.
MALIK RAHIM: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN:What happens then and what are you calling for?
MALIK RAHIM: Well, first thing we�re calling for is amnesty. Because, regardless of what happened, because, as a spiritual person, I believe that god said high, but that he looked low. And pretty soon that-I know that we gonna be victorious and with every settlement that is made. But in the interim, the residents, those individuals who have nothing to do with this, he has demonized them as being crack heads and everything else, and most of them is just good hard working people. And we are trying to just ask the court to allow these people to live there.
You know, I mean it isn�t an idea, he couldn�t, no one couldn't make money. He could make money at the preexisting rent. You know, but he don�t want this. He wants to be able to increase the rent. He wanna be able to take federal funds that�s now being allocated to New Orleans, so he can renovate this place. This is what this is all about.
This is all about profiteering on federal funds, at the back of the existing residents. So we are asking for a moratorium, give these residents--let them live out the time of their lease. Let them stay there. You know, it�s not that you won�t make any money, you�ll make, you just won�t make as much. You know, as greed is motivating to, but you�ll make money off it. Let the courts decide what's going on.
AMY GOODMAN:Is Mayor Ray Nagin intervening?
MALIK RAHIM: Ray Nagin haven�t done anything. We have a brand new health clinic Amy, that we just opened up in the Lower Ninth Ward, I mean that we just got completed. On August the 28th we opened the health clinic on the 28th, the Mayor shut it down on the 29th. So now since August the 29th, up until the day, we have a new state of the art health clinic in the Lower Ninth Ward, an area of New Orleans that�s in most need of healthcare with a clinic that is closed. For, last week was the week of the Bayou Classic. We asked them to just sign off, so we could do a week of the survival programs, so that we could educate people on what is needed. What can they do, what resources is available for them.
AMY GOODMAN:Malik, we have 30 seconds. If people want to find out more information, where can they go, or call, or get information--
MALIK RAHIM: They can go to Common Ground Collective or they can call us at 504-304-9097.
AMY GOODMAN:We will put that on our website, Malik.
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