If it had been up to Henry, he would have taken that place out. Fewer than 200 families live at Desire today. They are virtually all black, as are the residents in the city's other 7,300 public housing apartments. A computer analysis by The Dallas Morning News found that three-quarters of the public housing in New Orleans is within a mile of one or more toxic dumps. A few hundred whites live in housing built or renovated under the federal Section 8 program.
None is within a mile of a toxic dump, the analysis shows.
Blacks constitute 62 percent of the city's population and whites 35 percent. Deborah Davis, the project's resident council president, has lived in Desire for 40 years. But she wants the government to rebuild it. It will be enriched socially, economically, spiritually and physically. HUD's Office of Inspector General remains unconvinced.