Public Housing Crisis Addressed During Terrebonne Parish Council Meeting

Things got passionate at this week’s Terrebonne Parish Council meeting during public comments about public housing.

Resident Telisa Clark stepped up to the podium to speak about public housing. “I’m here before you all tonight in reference to our public housing,” she began. She held up photos of examples, calling them “despicable.” She recalls speaking to Parish President Jason Bergeron during the Mechanicville Reunion, “he has vowed to walk hand-in-hand with me. I’m ready to exercise my human rights. This is where I’m from…I am asking tonight that the board that governs the housing authority be recalled simply because they are not doing their just duty,” she said.

She said it’s taken three years for roofs to begin being tarped, and grass has been past the doors and windows. The council moved to extend Clark’s speaking time. She went on to say, “I ask this council, along with our Parish President, to write a letter on behalf of the citizens of this parish to the Housing and Urban Development, which I too sat on that board; I look to have my parish continue to be the beautifying parish that it can be. This is unacceptable. I will not tolerate it, and I’m asking you to do your duty.”

Chairman and District 4 Councilman John Amedee then stated, “Just for the record, Terrebonne Council doesn’t operate the two facilities. That’s a Federal department.” Parish President Bergeron said, “Just clarification on that board…they are Parish President appointees all appointed prior to my term. The only way to remove board members is of cause. That being said, we’ve been working with the housing authority since I took office. We actually just recently condemned Bayou Towers, we’re in the process of the same inspection of Senator Circle, unfortunately, FEMA treats Senator Circle as individual cases, so you’re looking at 100-120 individual cases there. We are pushing on housing to demolish everything that can/or should be demolished and to come up with a plan. We’ve sent a letter to the housing authority that we want to understand what quantity of residents can come back…I want to say that the deadline is at the end of August and the end of September for a deadline for plan for what it’s going to look like for those residents to have the opportunity to come back to the housing and how quickly that can happen.”

District 1 Councilman Brien Pledger spoke next. He assured Ms. Clark the job would get done regarding the length of the grass, “I do understand how you feel…I reached out to the housing authority, and I can assure you, the grass is going to be cut pretty quickly.” Ms. Clark pointed out that the issue has been going on for three years and that hearing the Parish President talk about condemning and demolishing units is unacceptable, “I take a stand against that because prior to now, a lot of those units were habitable, and now many of them are un-habitable. I understand, no you are not governed to run their day-to-day operations. How be ever…you all have a duty.” 

District 9 Councilman Steve Trosclair said that they would give Ms. Clark the letter from the council stating the concerns and objectives for how those facilities are maintained or handled at this time. “That’s pretty much the extent of what we have the authority of,” he said, “but we definitely can do that.”

District 2 Councilman Carl “Carlee” Harding stated, “This is not my first time to discuss this topic… I’ve been to several meetings which we have been to the meetings together..but I’ve asked for HUD, the housing authority, to come here in attendance on numerous occasions. I’ve been to them. All we wanted was a report…I can understand the circumstances where they had to pay so many millions of dollars to get a roof on it, how long it takes to board it up, those things such as that…even if it is a federally funded program, it sits in Terrebonne Parish. That is our power. That letter is our power. The appointment by the Parish President is our power.” He explained that certain aspects need to be understood by the public, such as duties that HUD is liable for and those that the parish/districts are liable for. “We feel you on that, and we welcome the support from several other members of this council,” Harding said.

Parish President Bergeron explained the process of condemnation and demolition. Building anything new must be held off until they figure out the plan for the current issues. He explained they sent two letters: one on the condemnation of Bayou Towers and the other requesting plans going forward. 

“I can guarantee to our council and residents that we’re going to do everything we can within our power to make this happen faster. I’m committed to that. We have a housing crisis. I’ve been talking about it for almost two years now, and we need to find housing for our residents,” he concluded.

The full council meeting can be viewed on Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government’s Facebook page.