New York, N.Y. - Jan 11, 2006 - National Urban League President and CEO, Marc H. Morial expressed that the National Urban League believes the new plan unveiled by the New Orleans Rebuilding Commission may violate the rights of Katrina victims' to maintain their property and return. The proposed plan would give many of the city's racially diverse neighborhoods limited time to prove they should not be bulldozed, while preventing city permits to be issued to homeowners attempting to rebuild in those areas.

"The New Orleans Rebuilding Commission's plan is exclusionary, disrespectful and an affront to basic right of any American citizen who wants to retain their own property and return to his/her own neighborhood, said Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League. "Our civil rights organization cannot support any plan which amounts to a massive, red-lining scheme wrapped around a giant land grab that does not protect Katrina victims' right to return, recover and rebuild. Katrina survivors should be encouraged to return home; not turned away."

Under the New Orleans Rebuild Commission plan, residents from many of the city's most devastated and racially diverse neighborhoods including the 9th Ward and New Orleans East would not be permitted to move back for at least four months and must to prove why their neighborhoods should not be bulldozed. The neighborhoods represent almost two-thirds of the city and more than half its homeowners. Meanwhile, the city proposed a moratorium on building thereby not issuing city permits to rebuild in those areas if residents choose to return and not sell their property to the sell the city.

Morial first laid out the National Urban League's position with the "Katrina Victims Bill of Rights" in October, 2005 in Washington D.C. which called for a victims' compensation fund, property right and voter rights protections. In recent speech "Our Next Great Challenge", delivered in New Orleans, Morial reaffirmed the League's position regarding the rebuilding of New Orleans and Gulf Coast region calling for a government commitment to building a category 5 levee and flood protection system with stronger levees and coastal erosion protections. The system could be funded by the $6 billion paid annually to the federal government in oil and gas leases. The speech also recommended that Katrina property owners receive up to 120% in home equity payments to encourage their return.

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