In The News › Housing

On May 24, The Lens posted an article from Sara Meadows Tolleson on a bill proposed by House Speaker Jim Tucker to consolidate three housing agencies into a new entity. After discussing the need for amendments, Ms. Tolleson attacked the accuracy of a study by the Bureau of Governmental Research on the supply of subsidized rental housing, calling it a “flawed report” and claiming that the study had been “rebutted” by research from the University of New Orleans.

The Bond Commission began slowing or stalling approval of New Orleans bond-financed proposals about a year ago, after the Bureau of Governmental Research issued a report finding that since the storm, a larger share of New Orleans families receive federal housing subsidies. The report also suggested that the city may be in danger of having too much affordable housing.
But BGR president Janet Howard said that the BGR was not trying to curtail affordable-housing construction with its study, which didn’t address demand. “It was just about one element: supply,” she said.

While Mayor Landrieu has written a letter supporting the project, and the developers are convinced the market will bear additional mixed income rental units, The Bureau of Governmental Research issued a report last year warning about the post-Katrina growth in subsidized rental units.

“That you would end up with a major blight problem was absolutely predictable,” said Janet R. Howard, executive director of the Bureau of Governmental Research, a nonprofit advisory group here. “You come to a point where you have to get beyond the political question to the actual question.”

More than four years after Hurricane Katrina, the state’s troubled rental housing programs are finally bearing fruit, but recent market studies are making some leaders nervous about whether they should continue as they are.

Even before it opened in July, renters were anxious to land an apartment in Walnut Square, a new mixed-income apartment complex in eastern New Orleans.

For nearly three months, the meetings about the mixed-income apartment complexes slated for Chalmette have drawn standing-room-only crowds to the St. Bernard Parish government complex.

The Bureau of Governmental Research says New Orleans already has 21 percent more subsidized housing than it had in 2005.

The nonprofit research organization’s report, “The House that Uncle Sam Built: The Continued Expansion of Subsidized Housing in New Orleans,” found that the number of subsidized units in New Orleans jumped from 19,865 in 2005 to 23,999 in 2009, a 21 percent increase.

Group warns trend puts stress on city