Archives of General Psychiatry

Mental illness conclusions:

The high prevalence of DSM-IV anxiety-mood disorders, the strong associations of hurricane-related stressors with these outcomes, and the independence of socio-demographics from stressors argue that the practical problems associated with ongoing stressors are widespread and must be addressed to reduce the prevalence of mental disorders in this population.

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New Orleans residents have long charged Jackson as being involved in similar unethical deals with his former business partner, Columbia Residential, which was given the contract to demolish and reconstruct the St Bernard Housing project. Columbia owes Jackson up to a half a million dollars due to his prior business dealings with the company.

Residential representatives from five New Orleans public housing developments and their supporter had a press conference demanding their voices be heard regarding demolitions and reconstruction plans.

The gathering comes on the heels of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson's resignation due to a scandal involving sweetheart deals and conflict of interest in Philadelphia.

Local residents have long charged Jackson as being involved in similar unethical deals with his former business partner, Columbia Residential, which was given the contract to demolish and reconstruct the St Bernard Housing project. Columbia owes Jackson up to a half a million dollars due to his prior business dealings with the company.

Though this is a well known fact to both the political establishment, as well as the local media, public housing residents has charged both entities with ignoring the issue in their haste to speed up the elimination of  low income, subsidized housing in New Orleans.

The residents further charge that local, state, federal government and the media with ignoring their proposed solutions to the housing crisis in New Orleans.

This involves immediately stopping the illegal, corrupt process of current demolitions/reconstruction of four housing developments, until the residents' rights of governance, potential home ownership and employment are brought to fruition.

Click here to watch news video of St. Bernard action.

"Once I have received the material I have been requesting since December 21, 2007, and have met again with my City Council colleagues to review and discuss it, I will issue a demolition permit for the Lafitte development."

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CERD report highlights the denial of IDP rights to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
 click here to download CERD report 

The U.N. committee, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, or CERD, was considering whether the United States had complied over the past seven years with the anti-racism treaty the country signed in 1994. It praised the United States for some of the steps the government has made to address racial discrimination, including the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2006. But among its concerns, which included admonishing the United States for de facto segregation in public schools, police brutality and permitting life imprisonment of juveniles, the treaty committee singled out housing issues in the wake of Katrina.

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