Author

Michelle Liu, Verite
Michelle previously for The Associated Press in South Carolina and was an inaugural corps member with the Report for America initiative. She also covered statewide criminal justice issues for Mississippi Today, Verite’s sister newsroom, from 2018 to 2020. Her work at Mississippi Today has been recognized regionally and nationally, including by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Online Journalism Awards and the John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Awards.
Medicaid navigators gear up as state eligibility checks begin
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - June 6, 2023
NEW ORLEANS In a repurposed waiting room at the DePaul Community Health Center on Carrollton Avenue, four Medicaid navigators in blue polo shirts each settled into a corner with their laptops one recent morning, ready to help people sign up for health insurance. DePaul’s navigators are trained to walk Louisianians through the paperwork necessary to […]
Study: Proactive policing in New Orleans linked to racial inequities in preterm births
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - April 9, 2023
NEW ORLEANS — As violent crime has surged in New Orleans over the past several years – leading all other major U.S. cities in homicides per capita last year – current and former city leaders have pushed for a greater emphasis on “proactive policing.” This kind of policing takes a preventive approach to crime that […]
In tough rental market, the clock runs out for one Section 8 tenant
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - February 28, 2023
NEW ORLEANS – On Valentine’s Day, Arnetta Harris walked into the lobby of the Housing Authority of New Orleans, where mostly empty rows of chairs faced a television airing local news segments on long-married couples and Carnival festivities. Harris wasn’t in the mood for celebration. She was busy thinking about other things, namely money. She […]
Tenant advocates decry Jefferson Parish plan to tear down public housing
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - February 1, 2023
Much of Acre Road, the public housing project in Marrero, looked like a ghost town by late January. Its playgrounds were bereft of children and empty brick duplexes bearing boarded-up windows and doors lined the streets. Then there was Elaine Savage, who had lit up the facade of her house with tinsel and fleur-de-lis accents and […]
Federal government takes over Slidell Housing Authority
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - January 11, 2023
NEW ORLEANS – Federal authorities have taken over the city of Slidell’s beleaguered housing authority, accusing local officials of blocking access to finances and records, skirting a subpoena and violating other parts of its federal contract. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development took possession of the Slidell Housing Authority — which administers federally […]
For one Section 8 tenant, a struggle to be heard
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - January 7, 2023
NEW ORLEANS – Cans of Glade air freshener were clustered on a table by Valerie Jeanmarie’s front door in early January, her usually neat living room crowded with cardboard boxes as she prepared for a move. Jeanmarie has been living in this blue duplex in Gentilly for less than a year, but after a dispute […]
Regulating Louisiana utilities: Q&A with new PSC member Davante Lewis
By: Charles Maldonado, Verite and Michelle Liu, Verite - December 26, 2022
On Dec. 10, political newcomer Davante Lewis was elected to represent District 3 on the Louisiana Public Service Commission, the body that regulates public utilities for most of the state. Lewis defeated longtime incumbent and fellow Democrat Lambert Boissiere III — a member of a prominent New Orleans political family who had heavy institutional support […]
Racist, misogynistic slurs, discrimination noted in lawsuit against Sun Belt Conference
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - November 15, 2022
Editor’s note: This article contains links to uncensored deposition testimony that includes racist and misogynistic language. NEW ORLEANS – Officials at the top levels of a college sports conference headquartered in New Orleans used or tolerated racist and misogynistic slurs that created a hostile work environment, according to recent filings in a 2021 lawsuit by […]
Mastercard gave New Orleans $100K for ‘truly needy.’ City couldn’t get people to take cash.
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - November 8, 2022
NEW ORLEANS – In November of last year, Mayor LaToya Cantrell gathered finance executives and community leaders on a basketball court inside a city recreation center to announce a new initiative that, she said, was aimed at addressing the city’s racial wealth gap. The mayor’s vision centered on the Crescent City Card, a quasi-municipal ID […]
Despite campus pressures, Tulane keeps segregationist’s name on building
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - November 2, 2022
NEW ORLEANS – In late September, the historian Justin Wolfe opened an email that had landed in the inboxes of Tulane University students and faculty, its subject line unassuming: “A Message from President Fitts.” The email outlined the many steps the university, a predominantly white institution located in the mostly Black city of New Orleans, […]
With shutdown of Cantrell’s nonprofit, what will happen to private funds?
By: Michelle Liu, Verite - October 27, 2022
NEW ORLEANS – A lawyer for Forward Together New Orleans, the nonprofit holding the purse strings for several of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s city-sponsored social welfare programs, has said the organization will shut down following a government subpoena and a legal dispute between its governing board and its sole staffer. Attorney Allen Miller told […]
Board of New Orleans ‘mayor’s fund’ nonprofit sues former director
By: Michelle Liu, Verite and Charles Maldonado, Verite - October 13, 2022
NEW ORLEANS – The board of a nonprofit organization founded by New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell to carry out city-sponsored social programs is suing its former executive director after he accused the group’s governing board of financial abuse and mismanagement. Those accusations prompted a subpoena last month from the city’s Office of Inspector General seeking […]