August 13, 2010
Tulane law professor and housing expert Stacy Seicshnaydre, the William K. Christovich Associate Professor of Law and Director of Tulane's Civil Litigation Clinic, recently appeared before a congressional panel to help guide national fair housing reform. Professor Seicshnaydre's testimony was based on her latest research into real estate development and regulation in New Orleans in the years following Hurricane Katrina. Before the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on July 29, 2010, Professor Seicshnaydre discussed and responded to questions relating to her scholarship on the fair housing implications of the post-Katrina housing recovery. In addition to discussing her 2007 essay on post-Katrina public housing redevelopment, published at 81 Tulane Law Review 1263, Professor Seicshnaydre discussed a new research paper entitled Postcards from Post-Katrina New Orleans: Why Government-Assisted Housing Seems Destined to Perpetuate Racial Segregation and What Can Be Done About It.
Professor Seicshnaydre testified that the housing landscape in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, which has included a proliferation of new restrictions on rental housing throughout the metro area, casts a revealing light on the dynamic in which federally assisted housing programs operate throughout the United States. Professor Seicshnaydre's testimony was invited as part of a subcommittee hearing entitled, "American Dream Part III: Advancing and Improving the Fair Housing Act on the 5-Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina."