Housing Hoax
Fox News
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is assuring the public that it still plans to demolish 5,000 units of public housing as part of it's revitalization plan for New Orleans, after a man claiming to be a senior housing official convinced a reconstruction conference that the agency had reversed its decision.
Forty-two-year-old Andy Bichlbaum managed to address the crowd from the same podium as Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco by impersonating a top aide to Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson, saying HUD had failed the city and would go to elaborate lengths to move displaced residents back into the vacant projects.
Bichlbaum claims the prank was meant to highlight HUD's failure to provide for New Orleans' poorest citizens. A HUD spokesman called the hoax cruel and "terribly sad."
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is assuring the public that it still plans to demolish 5,000 units of public housing as part of it's revitalization plan for New Orleans, after a man claiming to be a senior housing official convinced a reconstruction conference that the agency had reversed its decision.
Forty-two-year-old Andy Bichlbaum managed to address the crowd from the same podium as Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco by impersonating a top aide to Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson, saying HUD had failed the city and would go to elaborate lengths to move displaced residents back into the vacant projects.
Bichlbaum claims the prank was meant to highlight HUD's failure to provide for New Orleans' poorest citizens. A HUD spokesman called the hoax cruel and "terribly sad."
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 7:40 AM
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