(Host) Plans to tear down public housing in New Orleans inspired a protest in Burlington earlier today.
Members of the Vermont Workers’ Center demonstrated outside the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s field office in Burlington.
They say they were responding to a call from New Orleans. Jonathan Kissam of Burlington was one of the demonstrators.
(Kissam) “We’re trying to be part of what’s really a national movement to let HUD know that what they’re doing in demolishing public housing in New Orleans is unacceptable. I think we see it as a continuation of the attempt by the federal government to use the disaster of Katrina to not allow the people displaced by the hurricane the right of return."
(Host) The Vermont Workers’ Center says the demonstration in support of the poor in New Orleans is part of its mission.
The Vermont group says the people who lived in the public housing before Hurricane Katrina struck should be involved in decisions about the buildings in question.