5.6 Demolition

Anderson v. Jackson.1  After Hurricane Katrina, public housing residents sued HUD and their local housing authority to enjoin plan to demolish their housing projects and replace them with mixed-income developments. The Fifth Circuit affirmed denial of a preliminary injunction, holding that 42 U.S.C. § 1437p, governing demolition of developments, did not create rights that residents could enforce by private suit. Residents also could not sue HUD for monetary damages. But the court did not rule on whether the statute would have supported a claim under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, if the court had been ruling before most of the demolition was complete

• 1556 F.3d 351 (5th Cir. 2009).