Report: Shortage of affordable housing in Louisiana
6th April 2021 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
A new report issued by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and Housing NOLA found that the affordable housing supply in Louisiana is less than half of what’s needed to find homes for the state’s total extremely low-income households.
According to the March 18 report, there are 201,016 extremely low-income households in the state, but there’s less than 98,231 available housing units, revealing that after a year into a COVID-19 pandemic during which tens of millions of dollars have been spent locally to locate and place vulnerable families facing housing instability and possible homelessness, those efforts are still falling way short of what’s needed.
The report defines extremely low-income as families of four with household incomes of $25,570 or less.
Roughly two-thirds of the extremely low-income households among Louisiana renters are severely cost-burdened and at risk of homelessness.
Extrapolating the data found in the new report, titled “The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Housing,” there are only 49 available housing units in the state for every 100 extremely low-income households, or less than 50.
“I’d give [local officials] a resounding ‘F’ for allotting COVID resources to affordable housing programs,” said Andreanecia Morris, HousingNOLA executive director.
She added that while the agencies involved in battling the housing crisis have managed to staunch the brunt of the loss of affordable housing during the pandemic, no real progress is being made in gaining ground and establishing new housing opportunities to the people and families who most desperately need it.
“What we’re doing is treading water, but we’re not swimming anywhere,” Morris said. “We’re not progressing, and the problem with treading water is eventually you get tired and start to drown.”
Morris said HousingNOLA will release its own annual report this week. HousingNOLA is a 10-year partnership between the community, civic leaders, government agencies, private companies and nonprofit organizations dedicated to solving the crisis in affordable housing in New Orleans using a 10-year strategy and implementation plan.
Ahead of HousingNOLA’s annual report, and with the NLIHC’s report from March in mind, Morris said the affordable housing picture in New Orleans remains pretty bleak.
“There are blight and [housing] vacancies in every part of the city,” she said. “We have to start acting on those [unfilled homes]. People need resources and programs that don’t set them up for failure.”
The situation isn’t any better in Baton Rouge either. Samuel Sanders, executive director of Mid City Redevelopment Alliance and a board member of HousingLOUISIANA, told The Louisiana Weekly that the lack of quality housing in the state capitol, much like in New Orleans, mirrors that of so much of the rest of the nation.
“We need to double down our efforts to tackle this housing crisis by first stabilizing our most vulnerable families and provide more rental assistance,” Sanders said. “The blight in East Baton Rouge Parish has to be resolved and properties must be put back on the market as part of the affordable housing solution.”
Sanders said the dire assessment presented in the NLIHC’s study should be a wake-up call to those in Louisiana and the nation as a whole.
“The NLIHC’s Gap Report gives us the data to support what all of us who work to develop and advocate for affordable housing have known about Louisiana’s housing crisis,” he said. “Those families with the lowest income levels carry the greatest housing cost burden among us having to pay more than 50 percent of their incomes for housing costs.”
In addition to needing a more dependable, dedicated commitment from local and state officials to the affordable housing crisis, such efforts are needed federally, Sanders said.
“On a federal level, we must ask our congressional delegates to demand an increase in housing vouchers to reduce the thousands of Louisiana families who are on waiting lists for housing assistance,” he said.
The NLIHC’s recent report found that similar situations to Louisiana’s exist in many other states around the country, which collectively paints a nationwide picture that is less than encouraging.
“Even if there were no shared societal benefits, it is unjust to deprive people of the basic necessity of housing,” the report stated, “and we are all complicit in that injustice if we let a shortage of affordable and available homes for those most in need persist.
“COVID-19 has made painfully clear that our public health and collective well-being require a society in which everyone enjoys stable, decent, accessible and affordable housing,” it added. “We need a sustained public commitment to build and maintain affordable housing for the lowest-income households in America and to ensure that every household in need receives assistance.”
This article originally published in the April 5, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
