HUD Secretary Jackson Announces New Direction for Agency

Delivered by Deputy Assistant Secretary Rene Oswin for Secretary Alphonso

Jackson

Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco speak. After pitching his administration's policies in the usual way, Nagin tells a long story in which truth and lie go skinny-dipping; lie steals truth's clothes, and truth chases after. "What you have is truth running naked after well-clothed lie."

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Wow - what a tough act to follow. Nothing like that to make you feel naked.

I am very sorry that Secretary Jackson was unable to make it here to this session. The decision that was made late last week is so important that he has had to meet with President Bush about it. Secretary Jackson asked me, however, to read this speech on his behalf.

I'll be happy to speak with any of you afterwards about what the increased budget can mean for you and your business, and about specific contract opportunities of relevance to yourselves.

Without further ado, then, here is Secretary Jackson's talk.

    Dear Friends,

    It is with great joy that I announce to you today a brand new Department of Housing and Urban Development. Everything is going to change about the way we work, and the change is going to start right here, today, in New Orleans.

    Our charter is to ensure that affordable housing is available for those who need it. This year in New Orleans, I am ashamed to say we have failed.

    For the past year, as various interests have battled it out for this city, we at HUD have often ended up on the wrong side of that battle, forgetting our charter and making decisions that cheat both contractors and ourselves of the chance to make a big difference.

    Today, as Governor Blanco said, we need housing for our workers. Yet until today, we at HUD planned to demolish 5,000 units of perfectly good public housing here in New Orleans, and put commercial housing in its place. Almost all of these apartments have no damage at all, many were on high ground, and their former occupants are by and large begging to move back in and start contributing to their city once again.

    Today, we're going to help them to do that. But that's only the start. With your help, we're not going to destroy much-needed housing, we're going to make it work - for all of us.

    We've got a three-step plan:

    1. The first step is to let these folks go home right now.

    2. Next, we're going to help them create the opportunities they need to thrive.

    3. Finally, with your help, we're going to give back to Mother Nature what she needs to protect this city for all of its citizens.

    All of this is going to require your help to an unprecedented extent, and we are very pleased to announce a contracting budget of 1.8 billion dollars.

    1. LET PEOPLE COME HOME

    More on that in a moment. But first, what on earth made us lock American families out of their homes in the first place?

    Well, until last week, our M.O. here at HUD was to tear down public housing whenever we could. Like many folks in Washington, we thought that the projects caused crime and unemployment, and we thought that erasing the symptom would get rid of the cause.

    Well, we were wrong.

    Today, with nearly all public housing still boarded up, crime rates are at record highs anyhow. And in any case, employment rates in public housing were pretty much the same as anywhere else in this city. These were real communities, not the crime-ridden hood you see on MTV.

    When we tore down St. Thomas and replaced it with "mixed-income" flats, only 1 out of 27 former residents made it back, and the rest have faced many problems, in some cases even homelessness. It just didn't work.

    We will not make this error again. This afternoon, we will begin to reopen all housing projects in New Orleans and allow these Americans to be part of their city again.

    2. CREATE OPPORTUNITY

    But opening doors won't be enough. We also need to create the conditions for the enduring prosperity of these communities.

    To do that, we're first going to stop the flow of money out of these communities. You know something's wrong when local earnings of poor folks end up in pockets of Wal-Mart shareholders in Manhattan. I am very pleased to announce that Wal-Mart and three other chains have agreed with HUD to withdraw from areas near low-income New Orleans neighborhoods and to help nurture local businesses to replace them. Legislation under study at state and federal levels will make sure this sticks.

    And money will start flowing in. Starting today, we at HUD will contract directly with public housing residents to remediate apartments and initiate community projects; these measures will invigorate these communities and create new expertise for the long term. We have also budgeted 75 million dollars in training and education incentives for contractors like yourselves to transfer necessary know-how to residents.

    3. PROVIDE BASIC SERVICES

    Now for the big stuff. All of us are here at the Pontchartrain Center today because we want to see New Orleans succeed. But to make that happen, we have a giant challenge before us: to make sure that essential infrastructure is available to everyone.

    Health care, for example. Too many working families end up a burden on the state because some easily curable medical condition has gotten out of hand. No more. In partnership with health departments and the CDC, and with your help, we will insure there is at least one well-equipped public health clinic for every public housing development. We have 180 million dollars to make sure they're the best.

    As for education, Katrina has provided an opportunity to replace government education in favor of private and charter solutions. But why was government education so bad in the first place? It's because government schools - like the City of New Orleans itself - are dependent on local taxes; when an area is underpriviledged, its schools have no money. That's why we at HUD are teaming up with the Department of Education to create a national tax base for schools. This will mean an immense amount of contracting work, and we hope that many of you will be bidding. With your help, the prospects of New Orleanians will no longer depend on their birthplace, and the cycle of poverty will come to an end.

    4. FIX THE ENVIRONMENT

    The plans I've laid out so far will establish the groundwork for success of low-income communities. But there's one pesky detail: New Orleans is likely to flood once again.

    It's not just that we keep pumping greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. That's bad of course - but it's beyond HUD's scope. If a large ice shelf slips off Greenland, as it seems to be starting to do, there won't be a few thousand New Orleanians clamoring to get back into undamaged apartments, like today, but rather 300 million refugees whose cities have gone permanently under the sea. An agency mandated to assure affordable housing has to wonder what that would look like.

    But even just another Katrina could bring us back to square one. Fortunately, there is a solution - and here's where we need you like never before.

    As you know, the main reason New Orleans was so vulnerable to Katrina was the destruction of the wetlands - due in large part to the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, built so that oil tankers could get to the ocean more cheaply.

    I am pleased to announce that Exxon and Shell have agreed to finance the rebuilding of the protective wetlands from part of their 60 billion dollars in profits this year.

    As J. Stephen Simon, Exxon Vice President, writes on the Exxon website: "We at ExxonMobil have always intended our business practices to have a positive effect on the world. When this turns out to be not the case, we must do whatever we can to remediate. Today, therefore, ExxonMobil is earmarking 8.6 billion dollars from revenues our company has made in this region to the project of shutting down MRGO and beginning the long process of wetland restoration, so as to assure that ExxonMobil never again has a hand in destroying a large American city."

    Any of you who might be interested in contracts around the MRGO closure program should get in touch with EPA or HUD offices as soon as possible, or give me your business cards at the press conference.

    Ladies and gentlement: We in America are facing a state of emergency - it's called urban poverty. And with your help, we at HUD are putting our collective mistakes behind us - at least here in New Orleans.

    Together, we will make sure that New Orleans follows in the footsteps of San Francisco, Tokyo, and Chicago, newly protected from dangers it used to face and well on the road to prosperity. But that's not all. We will not rebuild just New Orleans - we will rebuild the American Dream. Many of you here will be crucial for this great endeavour.

    Please come join us at the Lafitte housing complex for a festive ribbon cutting ceremony immediately after the plenary session. We can discuss the work to be done in more detail, and lunch will be served and transportation will be provided. This is what we're all here for, so let's make it happen. Let's Bring New Orleans Back.

    Thank you.

Thank you very much for listening to Secretary Jackson's words. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have at the press conference following, as well as discuss contract issues.

We will be proceeding with the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Lafitte right after this session; Secretary Jackson will also try to join us there. We'll be able to discuss contracts in some detail, and to get a hands-on look at what has to happen.

Transportation will be provided - look for the bus out front, parked in front of the doors. We'll have plenty of food, and we can get you back in time for afternoon sessions. Or if you'd like to take your private vehicle, I have a sheet with directions that I can give you.

This is what we're all here for, as the secretary said, so please come along.