DeGaulle Manor was a federally subsidized public housing project in Algiers, New Orleans. The complex had a high crime rate and was one of the oldest and most troubled apartments in the city before being shut down in 2012. It later became a dumping ground for trash and in 2014, became a work of art as it was transformed into a graffiti display. History The 450-unit apartment complex opened in 1964 with 12 5-6 story mid-rise buildings originally known as "Bridge Plaza." Members from the Black Panther Party were among the first blacks to move into the apartments along with the New Orleans Saints players. Towards the early 1970's most of the 200 apartments were being leased by the Federal Housing Administration and some were being administered and subsidized by the Red Cross. It later became a low income subsidized section 8 housing complex operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Between 1970 and the present, no owner kept the property for more than seven years; and each time that it changed hands, the new owners made little effort to rectify the many problems that arose under the supervision of the previous owners. By the mid 1980s only 364 units remained occupied as the rest were abandoned with squatters who would normally burglarize the apartments. With bad management, the apartments fell into terrible conditions with interior walls damaged from water leaks of rusted pipes and broken elevators. Big rats and cockroach infestations were commonplace as well as rotting garbage stacked up in clogged trash in the dumpsters. The balcony railings were rusted along with the security gates which did not close. The broken gates enabled drug dealers to openly distribute drugs. By 1993, robberies and killings occurred so frequent to the point local cab companies refused to dispatch cabs near the area. In 1996, HUD razed 39 abandoned townhouse units and renamed it Live Oaks. In December 2000 Woody Koppel, Neal Morris and Mark Schreiner bought the complex for $5 million in hopes of transforming it but many apartments still failed HUD inspections. By then it had become ground zero for Heroin sales, prostitution and violence. Locals nicknamed the area "D-Block." In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina struck, 135 out of 364 units were vandalized. One hundred families still lived in the apartments until they were evicted on Thanksgiving. Johnson Properties Group purchased the complex and was