Jaqueline Barber in the home that was threatened with eviction in 2012.
Credit: AP/David Goldman

It was right around Christmas last year when Michael Esnault got the news: he had two months to move out of the affordable apartment in New Orleans he’s lived in for six years and find another place to live.

But Esnault, a 68-year-old Vietnam War veteran who suffers from PTSD, knew he wouldn’t be able to find a new place on his own. “I was going to be out on the street. I didn’t have no money to move,” he said. “This is something that just came out of the blue.”

It wasn’t just him, either. Fifty-three other low-income families were facing the same fate. “This is very stressful,” he said. “This is taking years off our life.”

“I knew I needed help,” he said.

Esnault decided to do something about it. So he marched over to the offices of Southeast […]