New Orleans council dismissed a housing board member. Critics call it ‘political retribution’

By Sophie Kasakove

Source: The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com

November 7, 2025

Sparking accusations of revenge politics, the New Orleans City Council has removed a prominent housing advocate from an advisory panel weeks after her organization blasted some council members and she criticized a bond proposition the council placed on the November ballot.

The council on Thursday voted 6-0 to remove Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance Director Andreanecia Morris from the committee charged with overseeing spending of the city’s Housing Trust Fund, which was created last year to dedicate millions of dollars a year for housing programs.

The measure, authored by Council President JP Morrell and District C Councilmember Freddie King, replaces an appointee of the alliance, an affordable housing advocacy group, with an appointee of the council president who is an “employee of representative of a community land trust organization.”

But Morris and other critics have accused the council of seeking “political retribution” after Morris’ alliance gave poor marks to four council members who were running in contested elections and as Morris has opposed a council effort to direct bond money toward affordable housing.

In an email on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the alliance wrote that the ordinance, which Morrell introduced Oct. 23, was a “clear act of political retribution in response to the organization’s lawful advocacy during the past election where the organization amplified his poor record on affordable housing and opposed his reelection.”

Morrell and District B Councilmember Lesli Harris declined to comment on Morris’ accusation. District A council member Joe Giarrusso, meanwhile, said his support of the ordinance was not retaliatory as he is not running for reelection.

Giarrusso said that he believes Morris’ organization’s stance on the ordinance is “unreasonable,” but that they “have the right to oppose it.”

Bond issue

The ordinance comes after Morris’ organization on social media opposed the Nov. 15 ballot measure, which would dedicate $45 million in bond funding toward efforts like affordable housing construction and renovations. It’s one of three bond propositions on the ballot, totaling $510 million, that are aimed at funding various city priorities.

The alliance — and the nonprofit Bureau of Governmental Research — has said that the city should use general fund money, not one-time bond proceeds, to support the Housing Trust Fund, created after voters in 2024 agreed to require the city to dedicate the equivalent of 2% of the city’s general operating budget to affordable housing initiatives each year.

Giarrusso said in a text message on Thursday that he supported using the bond money to fund the housing trust.

“We have a $160 million deficit this year and we cannot make payroll and owe our vendors,” said Giarrusso. “There won’t be much, if any, general funds to fund the housing trust fund.”

Harris said the bonds are “not a replacement for the Housing Trust Fund,” which she said will “continue to operate regardless.” She noted that a larger multifamily housing development is too costly to be financed by the Housing Trust Fund alone.

Other housing advocates have come out in support of the bond measure, though not of the council’s actions. 

Maxwell Ciardullo, who serves on the Housing Trust Fund advisory board, said Morris’ organization was “dead wrong” in opposing the bond proposition, which he called “an essential opportunity to create hundreds, maybe even thousands of affordable units that we can’t afford to pass up right now.”

But he agreed with Morris that the bond money should not be used to satisfy the city’s funding requirements for the housing trust, and he questioned the council’s decision to remove Morris from the advisory board.

“When we … tamper with the advisory committee’s makeup with at least the appearance of political motives we remove (residents’) trust,” said Ciardullo.

Mounting tension

In scorecards Morris’ organization issued ahead of the Oct. 14 primary for municipal candidates based on their positions on affordable housing issues, Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, Morrell, King and District D council member Eugene Green all received Cs, while District E council member Oliver Thomas received an F.

The mounting tension between the council and Morris exploded at a budget hearing Wednesday when council members accused her organization of sending mass text messages encouraging people to call council members to tell them to keep the organization on the advisory committee. Council members said the texts included members’ personal cellphone numbers.

Morrell called the text messages “doxing.”

A spokesperson for Morris’ organization said in a Wednesday statement that the group had not shared council members’ cellphone numbers “and does not condone such actions.” The email included a copy of a text message sent by the alliance that included office numbers for the council members.

Giarrusso said Thursday that he had seen a version of the text that included council members’ cellphone numbers and suggested the organization altered it later. Morris on Thursday said she had no idea who sent texts with council members’ personal numbers. 

Morris has been removed from at least one other city board after publicly disagreeing with the politician who appointed her. In 2018, Mayor LaToya Cantrell dismissed her from the Housing Authority of New Orleans’ board after she questioned an early proposal Cantrell’s administration floated to create an affordable housing development mandate. The council adopted the mandate the following year.

Separately, Morris joined three other HANO members in 2018 to vote against renewing former HANO Executive Director Gregg Fortner’s contract, after HANO received a “substandard” rating for its public housing management under Fortner. Fortner resigned his post in 2019.

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