State and federal leaders are expected to announce the location of a new LSU teaching hospital that would replace Charity on Tuesday and it won’t be without its controversy. Sources tell Eyewitness News that a new VA Hospital would also be part of the medical complex that's on track to be built in Mid-city.

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Harold Phelps and his wife Rose live in the proposed area of construction, a community they say has struggled post Katrina.

And now, yet again, the couple wonder if their efforts to rebuild have been in vain. Katrina kicked them out once, but both fear it could be the government who will send them off a second time.

The Phelps home sits within 34 acres of land the federal government has identified as a possible home for a new VA Hospital, and that lot sits right next to the 37 acres the state has tagged as a potential spot for a new LSU teaching hospital. The combined area of land is enclosed by Tulane Avenue, South Claiborne Avenue, Canal Street and South Rocheblave Street.

Residents acknowledge they can't argue away the need for the hospitals, but they say the decision on the location should have been made sooner. Then, they say, neighbors wouldn't have pumped money back into properties that now could be torn down anyway.

"Tomorrow is going to be a rough day," said Mid-City community activist Bobby Rogers, who has long dreaded the news. For her, and the group of mid-city residents and business owners she represents, the location decision equates to rock bottom for the city.

"A lot of the people are going to leave, they're going to loose people that came back and invested their savings and into the communities, and they're going to lose their people out of New Orleans," said Rogers.

Rogers has long advocated bringing the new VA to the old Lindy Bogs Medical Center, while at the same time re-opening Charity for the LSU teaching hospital.

But City Council President Jackie Clarkson says there is an inherent synergy if the two facilities adjoined one another.

"We always had good medical schools and good medicine and good hospitals, but we never had a medical industry," said Clarkson.

Weary residents say they've yet to hear specifics on how they'd be compensated, although state officials have long promised a fair and just quid pro quo.

"We're going to assist them in finding new places, new places of businesses, and give them relocation assistance through the process," said Jerry Jones back on 29 November 2007, Louisiana Director of Facility Planning and Control.

The advent of a new medical complex has been dubbed a potential major step forward in the recovery, all while some say Mid-City residents say they'd be forced to take two steps back. For now, the Phelps enjoy the breeze outside on their porch, unsure of how much longer they'll have their steps at all.

The US Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, LSU's President, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin are a few of the leaders expected to be present during Tuesday's afternoon announcement at New Orleans City Hall.