Report says New Orleans lagging in affordable housing goals
17th May 2021 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
A semi-annual report by a local collaborative housing advocacy initiative harshly criticizes Louisiana officials, particularly those with the city of New Orleans, for falling short of goals aimed at creating new housing opportunities and supporting residents’ efforts to locate and maintain affordable, adequate residence arrangements.
However, representatives from city government assert that HousingNOLA’s assessment of the housing situation in New Orleans doesn’t capture and consider the full picture of the city’s wide-ranging efforts to assist residents in their search for homes.
HousingNOLA brings together the community, local leaders and numerous public, private and nonprofit entities in a 10-year plan to address and solve New Orleans’ housing crisis, which has been exacerbated by the economic and public-health impact of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
HousingNOLA, together with the Greater New Orleans Housing Authority, works to ensure that local officials remain committed to the goal of producing 1,500 new housing opportunities per year from 2016 to 2020 – the first five years of the 10-year plan – and advocate for the fulfillment of that objective.
But HousingNOLA’s new report, which was released May 5, paints a less-than-rosy assessment of the collective progress toward that goal. According to the report, a total of just 1,277 affordable new housing units have been added since 2016, well short of the stated goal.
A total of roughly 33,600 affordable housing opportunities are needed for New Orleans families and other residents, according to the report. Closing that gap is the primary goal of the HousingNOLA project.
Other statistics examined by the report are also disappointing, although some are starting to trend in a positive direction. However, HousingNOLA said resources such as housing vouchers and COVID-19 assistance funding are not getting into the hands of those who need it, especially renters facing eviction or other financial stress as a result of the pandemic.
The report also states that although there’s enough housing inventory available to stabilize the local housing crisis, many of them remain vacant, incomplete or not viable for occupancy currently.
HousingNOLA Executive Director Andreanecia Morris said that as the pandemic has worn on, “we’re just not seeing those housing opportunities being created.”
“While people have been staying home from work,” she added, “we could have been building more units, and we didn’t.”
Morris said that while much of the hemorrhage in housing options has been staunched and the negative trends from early reports have slowed or stopped, they still aren’t being sufficiently reversed or started on an actual upward trend. For example, she said while the Housing Authority of New Orleans should be commended for largely halting the previous decline of housing-voucher supply, not enough residents in need have been actually accepting those vouchers.
“We have to start getting back to where we were two years ago,” before the onset of the pandemic, she said. “We’re headed in the right direction, but more needs to be done.”
However, Morris and the new report note that city officials did not comply with HousingNOLA’s public records request to provide the numbers for the amount of housing opportunities created by the city of New Orleans by the end of the review cycle covered by the new report. Morris said that failure to provide such statistics leads to an incomplete picture of the current housing situation in the city, which makes it difficult to assess what exactly needs to be done from here to reach the 10-year goals.
She said city and state officials haven’t been using the funding resources at their disposal to address the housing deficit, including aid received as part of the two major federal COVID crisis relief measures.
“We know there’s still money left,” she said.
Overall, Morris had a blunt message for city officials. “Do your jobs,” she said.
However, city officials said HousingNOLA’s report doesn’t consider the entirety of the efforts in New Orleans to close the housing deficit. City of New Orleans Director of Community Development Marjorianna Willman said the HousingNOLA criteria only counts new housing units that have been completed and made available toward the 10-year goal, but HANO and other city agencies are undertaking numerous large developments that are steadily approaching completion.
“We have a lot of projects in the pipeline in the city, but we’re not being given credit because they’re not finished yet,” Willman said, adding that typical new housing projects can take three years from start to finish.
Willman said the city wants to work with HousingNOLA to achieve the decade-long housing goals, but she added that when everyone involved comes to the table to work, there needs to be an acknowledged, clear formula for assessing progress toward those goals. She said all parties need to be functioning on the same wavelength and operating by the same parameters.
“We need to work with [HousingNOLA] to come up with methods that are current, so we can see things the way they really are,” she said.
Willman added that three-quarters of the city’s efforts and allocations for housing relief over the last year or so have been directed at simply stabilizing the housing market and availability and closing off the drops that have occurred because of the pandemic.
“We’ve been keeping folks in their homes,” she said. Willman said that now that the situation is levelling out, the city and other entities can start focusing on launching and completing large-scale new projects.
Willman also said the city is working with several partners in the community, including the media, to get the word out to the public about the available rental- and landlord-assistance programs in the city, and Mayor LaToya Cantrell has also held multiple press conferences to that end. Willman added that the city is also preparing to roll out a program aimed at assisting residents facing foreclosure on their homes.
Whether a family is facing eviction, or struggling to come up with monthly rent, or experiencing homelessness currently, the city wants to reach out to them.
“Our plan is to continue with post-pandemic activity,” Willman said. “It’s going to be crucial that we meet with people where they are [in terms of housing] and to connect them with the resources they need to find stable housing.”
Members of the City Council also stressed that much more progress is needed in creating affordable, stable housing, and that the city remains committed to that goal.
“Whatever the report shows, I know that the state of affordable housing in New Orleans is not satisfactory,” District B Councilman Jay H. Banks said. “The housing crisis is one of the most critical issues we’re facing, and what’s happening right now is definitely not nearly enough. We have to continue doing much more to get every number higher and to make it possible for every New Orleanian to live and thrive in our neighborhoods.”
District A Councilman Joseph I Giarrusso III said that the challenge goes beyond simply matching residents with available homes and includes wider concerns like creating better-paying employment for New Orleans so they can have more resources to meet their housing needs. He said the housing crisis needs to be viewed holistically.
“How government handles affordable housing is an age-old question,” he said. “But it’s not the only question we should be asking. New Orleans needs more higher-paying jobs, which in turn allows for long-term homeownership. That is a rising tide that lifts all boats. More homeownership allows for the passing of generational wealth.
“Another key question: how do we develop reliable and efficient transit options for people to get to these new careers?” Giarrusso added. “All these factors are in play when we talk about affordable housing.”
The newest member of the City Council, at-large Councilwoman Donna Glapion, declined to comment for this article.
This article originally published in the May 17, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
