ALGIERS, La -- Confidential records left in file cabinets and strewn through a former HANO office building in Algiers have raised questions about the agency's promise to secure private information.
HANO abandoned a former office loaded with all kinds of confidential information about two years ago with no apparent effort to secure or destroy those personal records.
One door to the former HANO office is gaping open while a milk crate holds another door ajar.
Neighbors said the building that served as a community center before Katrina and a HANO office for Section 8 properties after the storm is now littered with all kinds of abandoned materials.
File cabinets, desks, cans of food, boxes, documents, and paperwork are strewn all over the place. Community organizer Malik Rahim has discovered some of the documents contain very sensitive information.
“Here's a person's drivers license. His social security number,” said Malik Rahim, community organizer. “I mean everything that's pertinent to that person's history is just left and abandoned.”
Plenty photocopies of social security cards, birth certificates, and drivers licenses were found in file cabinets and on the floor.
“It's a disgrace!” said Rahim.
Rahim points out the files contained personal information not just on the adults but on the children of the affected families as well.
“I could walk up in here and take this lady's entire family history and go out and duplicate it,” said Rahim.
Rahim discovered all this when he showed an assistant dean from the Touro Law School in New York and some other people the condition of Christopher Park homes here in Algiers and at this one-time community center.
“We found payroll records, homeownership records, mortgage records,” said Tracy McGaugh, assistant law school dean. “We've seen some records relating to drug and alcohol treatment -- lots of personal information.”
McGaugh said what you have here are the makings of identity theft nightmares for dozens of people who trusted the Housing Authority of New Orleans with their personal information.
“You could recreate the identity from an entire family from the information here, and get credit cards, and utilities in your name and any number of things,” said McGaugh. “I mean this is malfeasance of the worst kind."
The head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission was asked to take a look at all of this and he found someone's confidential information about a drug treatment program.
“And there really is no excuse. This office obviously has been abandoned for a period of time,” said Rafael Goyaneche, head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. “And whoever was responsible for evacuating this facility had an ethical obligation to remove this material with them when they left.”
Goyaneche points out these documents didn't just pop out of these file cabinets. This building has been empty for a long time. Clearly people have been in here ransacking this place.
“And who knows what if anything has been removed, and if any of these people that thought they were providing this information with the expectation that their privacy would be maintained have now been victimized as a result of this,” said Goyaneche.
Goyaneche said HANO should conduct an internal investigation to find out how and why this breach of confidential information came about.
“It's disturbing,” said Goyaneche. “I believe that the public is owed an explanation.”
“I'm feeling angry, I'm feeling upset,” said Michelle Ravy, home owner.
Ravy said someone found her file in the building and brought it to her place a few months ago. She was worried someone could have stolen her identity.
“I mean they got all my children information,” said Ravy. “My sons, my daughter, they got wherever I worked at. They got copies of all the jobs I had with the check stubs, what they could go through."
Eyewitness News called HANO to find out how this happened and what the agency intends to do about it. HANO spokesman Terry Cassreino declined to look at the private information found and had little to say.
“This is the first we've heard,” said HANO spokesman Terry Cassreino. "I'll get back to you. Give us a chance to take a look and see.”
Late Tuesday Cassreino called to say that "this was a random break-in. There was no sign of forced entry except for the roof."
He said all the records have been removed and secured. He added, HANO will "try to contact all of the people (affected) and provide them with credit monitoring for one year to protect them against identity theft."
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