Getting to 'livable'

by Pete Hamill

Ashley and I were walking to the next FEMA trailer on Frenchman Street on March, 14, preparing for an interview, when she commented that the interaction we were having with the residents of the Seventh Ward seemed like it was therapeutic for them in some way.

She couldn’t have been more right. People have told us on more than one occasion “y’all are the first ones that come down here to actually talk to us.” Everyone on this street has a story, but the only people they get to talk to are other people with similar stories. When they tell their neighbor about what happened to them, that neighbor responds with something that they experienced. They’re eager to tell anyone who will listen what they’ve been through and what’s happening now.

The problem is that nobody is interested in just listening to them. It didn’t take us long to figure out that once these people realize we’re truly interested in what they have to say they’ll invite us into the trailers, sit us down, offer us something to eat or drink, and talk to us for as long as we’ll listen.

As the interview process continues I’m coming to the realization that the array of legal issues faced by the members of this community is as extensive as the structural damage to their homes. One of the most common legal issues is the fraud being committed by the contractors who have been hired to repair the houses.

William and Delores are 77 and 76 years old, respectively. FEMA has told them — as FEMA has told most people on this block — that they must be out of their trailers by August. If their house isn’t ready by then, they will have no place to go. The couple estimates that they need about $75,000 to finish the restoration work on their home.

They’d be much closer if they hadn’t fallen victim to the contractor fraud that has plagued so many throughout the neighborhoods of New Orleans. During the months of March, April, May, and June of last year, William and Delores wrote checks totaling more than $33,000 to a contractor who promised Delores he would make their house “livable.” He finished about a third of the work he’d contracted to do, then disappeared. His phone has been disconnected. His business is located in Baker, LA and William and Delores have no car — no way to get around other than public transportation. They haven’t heard from him in more than two months. They can’t afford to pay for the work that is still needed on their house because they paid most of the money allocated to them by FEMA to a contractor who deserted them.

With the date of their eviction approaching, the couple isn’t sure how they will pay for the repairs necessary to make their home “livable.” They’ve all but given up on ever seeing the contractor or their money again. They haven’t talked to a lawyer because they were positive they couldn’t afford one.

Delores and I sat down today and reviewed the contract she had made with the builder. We went through the “Work To Be Done” section piece by piece and she showed me exactly what had been done and what had not. I looked over the carbon copies of the checks she had written. They amounted to $33,500 more than what the contractor had listed as the total amount due for the entire job. It was my opinion that William and Delores had been defrauded of a significant amount of money by their contractor — I thought they deserved at least half of their money back.

Law students, however, are not to give legal advice — as any good Professional Responsibility student would know. That being the case, Delores and I called the New Orleans Legal Assistance Clinic (NOLAC). We were told that someone would call back before the day’s end. At 4:00 pm, Ashley and I went back to see Delores and she told us that no one had called. I called NOLAC again, but was told that the person I wanted to speak to was with a client and would call back in ten minutes. Twenty minutes passed without a call. I called again, but everyone was still busy. They would call us in five minutes. Ten passed before I called again. On the fourth phone call, Delores got an appointment to see an attorney at 10:00 a.m. on March 21. She promised me that she would go and asked if it would be OK to call me afterwards to let me know how it went. I can only hope that call brings good news.