Posted on 12/21/2009 10:04:19 AM PST by myfreepress
Sharon Jasper has spent 57 of her 58 years dedicated to one cause and one cause only, and has nothing to show for her dedicated servitude...
She has lived in Section 8 housing all but 1 of her 58 years. It was a legacy passed down from her parents who moved into Section 8 housing in 1949 when she was six months old.. She has passed the legacy down to her children, but fears they may have to get jobs to pay for the utilities and deposits.
She laments about her one year hiatus from the comfort of her Section 8 nirvana, 'I tried it for a year -- you know, working and all.. It's not anything I would want to go through again, or wish on anyone in my family, but I am damn proud of that year.'
(Excerpt) Read more at myfreepress.net ...
There is a provision for those who can’t afford it. That’s why they will have access to our bank accounts.
I read this three times and still don't know what to say...(shaking head)
I thought Henry Cisneros started Section 8 during the Clinton administration...
Uh...yeah.
Gee, that's great.
Regardless of what Sharon’s situation is. I am sure there is plenty of people who live their life in this manner.
I thought you were red.
[muffled murfer-murfer you hear is my giggling]
Sharon Jasper is leading the former tenants of St. Bernard Development in their campaign to return to the homes from which they were displaced.
Tom O'Malley, left, of the AFL-CIO's Gulf Coast Revitalization Program, is helping former public housing tenants try to reclaim their homes.
Sharon Jasper: Mobilizing tenants for the right of return
It’s another white hot New Orleans afternoon and Sharon Jasper is throwing off some heat of her own.
The 58-year-old Jasper’s voice rises and falls with a biblical fervor as she stands outside a 75-year-old public housing project called the St. Bernard Housing Development.
“I am a former resident of St. Bernard. My mother and father moved here in 1949, when I was 6 months old,” she says, pointing to a row of solidly constructed brick homes and neatly manicured lawns.
When Katrina struck and the levees broke, Jasper and thousands of public housing dwellers were herded like cattle throughout Louisiana and neighboring states. Now they want their homes back.
But the politicians, the government agencies and the developers have other ideas. They want to demolish St. Bernard as part of a vast redevelopment vision that includes a PGA golf course – but no affordable housing.
So the politicians, the government agencies and the developers have surrounded St. Bernard with a chain link fence topped by barbed-wire. And they’ve told hard-working, God-fearing people like Sharon Jasper to stay the hell out.
“Our families have been displaced all over the United States. Bring them back, then let’s talk about redevelopment,” Jasper argues.
Jasper is fighting back. She spearheads a tenant association that is working with the AFL-CIO’s Gulf Coast Revitalization Program to convince local authorities to rehabilitate rather than annihilate public housing stock.
“We, the poor working class, are the people who helped build this city,” Jasper says, jabbing her finger into the air, as if she were about to pull down the menacing barbed wire barrier. “We have a right to return. This is our home.”
They obviously aren’t lacking for food.
I love it how people who don’t work consider themselves to be part of the “working class.”
All I can say about that is WOW
Sharon Jasper screams 'shut up' at the man behind her during the City Council debate on razing four public housing complexes.
******
Kawana Jasper was arrested, along with her mother, Sharon Jasper, and longtime protester Jay Arena. Arena and the elder Jasper were charged with crossing a police cordon. Kawana Jasper spat on a construction worker, an action that qualifies as battery, according to NOPD spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse, who said officers had no problem with protest as long as it remained peaceful.
Jasper, along with her mother, Sharon Jasper, and long-time protester Jay Arena were arrested. The charges are not yet clear, but at least one charge would include battery against a police officer, said NOPD spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse.
Sharon Jasper has three grandchildren (courtesy of daughter Kawana) no idea if Kawana married, but she does use the last name “Jasper” which is her maiden name.
Want to know more about Sharon? Look up Shirley Q Liquor.
Sharon Jasper, a lifelong project resident and recent housing activist. Jasper wore a T-shirt imprinted with photographs of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Above the photos, in large block letters, were the words “Wanted for Mass Murder.”
Behind Sess 4-5 and Jasper stood an unidentified activist, a tall man with long dreadlocks, wearing a brown T-shirt. Soon all three of them would be involved in a raucous confrontation with SWAT officers.
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