FEMA adds $1.5M to housing project funding

By Mason Harrison
Contributing Writer

Eighteen months after breaking ground on the redevelopment of the old Florida public housing complex, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Housing Authority of New Orleans announced February 5 the injection of an additional $1.5 million into the project, already set at a price of $14 million. The extra dollars are the result of reallocated funds used to shore up the redevelopment project.

Rep. Cedric Richmond pushed for the additional funding “to ensure that we have access to the vital resources necessary to restore the city for all who call New Orleans home,” according to a statement. Richmond’s efforts come as the city remains engaged in a decade-long effort to rebuild itself and change the image of public housing, once notorious for atmospheric levels of crime and extensive poverty. “The Florida housing development is a part of the city’s history and home to hundreds of [residents].”

District D councilmember, Jared Brossett, whose district includes the Florida housing development, expressed “gratitude and appreciation to [Rep.] Richmond and FEMA for continuing to provide resources for our community to rebuild.” Brossett said he looked “forward to working with them, HANO, and most importantly the community, as we move forward and not leave any community behind.”

Brossett has been a longstanding advocate for fair housing and was honored last month by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center with the Mondale-Brooke award presented to individuals “who, through their leadership, have distinguished themselves as a champion of civil rights and housing.” The freshman councilman, during his time in the state Legislature, pushed for better housing rights, including efforts to end housing discrimination against gay and lesbian would-be renters. The award is named from Sens. Walter Mondale and Edward Brooke, known champions of fair housing rights.

Brossett called it an honor “to receive an award named in part for the great Edward Brooke.” Brooke was the first African-American popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, taking his post in 1967. Brooke, a Republican, was a leading antagonist of housing discrimination and co-authored with Democratic Sen. Walter Mondale what would become the Housing Rights Act of 1968, banning housing bias. “…[A]s a public official walking in his footsteps,” Brossett said, “I feel it incumbent on me to play whatever small role I can to continue the amazing legacy he has left behind.” Brooke died earlier this year.

Gregg Fortner, executive director of the city’s housing authority, called the added funding necessary support the city’s low-income residents and for affordable housing in the area. “…[T]he former Florida residents…anxiously await the completion of their new, more sustainable community,” Fortner said. Rental and mortgage rates have jumped in New Orleans in the years following Hurricane Katrina as housing stock has decreased, while the number of people living in the city continues to increase. These factors have placed added pressure on city officials to bring back affordable residential living.

“While we have seen great growth in New Orleans in the years since the devastation of Katrina,” Brossett said, “the Florida-Desire area has not seen the same level of redevelopment. But that is starting to change with a number of projects in the works and now this latest news of additional funding for the Florida development.” Brossett said other projects include the first and second phases of bringing back Sidney Collier College, the widening of the Florida Avenue Canal, and the construction of Carver High School.

This article originally published in the February 9, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.