New Orleans remains well short of hitting its affordable housing creation goals, six months after ending the worst year for affordable housing creation since officials agreed to set goals of creating 1,500 affordable units annually in 2015.
A midyear report from the nonprofit HousingNOLA found 412 affordable units were created between September 2018 and March 2019, making it unlikely the city will hit the 1,500-unit goal. That's after a year with an overall loss of 129 units, from September 2016 to August 2017.
HousingNOLA executive director Andreanecia Morris said the report highlights the need for more policy work in affordable housing, as well as more money into the city's Neighborhood Housing Improvement Fund, which can be used to subsidize affordable housing.
The numbers also underscore hot long it's taken the city to approve key ordinances, Morris said, such as the inclusionary zoning legislation passed in March. It took three years, a threat from governor and two mayoral administrations to enact.
"Those things have consequences," Morris said.
HousingNOLA outlined three priorities for the rest of the year to help create more affordable housing:
— Implementing inclusionary zoning, which will include identifying the neighborhoods that will have either a 5% or 10% affordable unit requirement for proposed buildings with more than four units.
— Reviewing the annual production goal of 1,500 units, and adjusting those numbers for need and capacity.
— Increase the Housing Trust Fund to help subsidize housing to meet production goals, and ask voters to renew the Neighborhood Housing Improvement Fund, which needs reauthorization by 2020.
Morris said the affordable housing crisis in New Orleans is beginning to show up on two ends of the spectrum: People who earn too much money to qualify for an affordable unit but don't have the money to but a home, and virtually no change in the city's homeless population in the most recent count after years of declines.
"If you're a single person making $50,000 a year, you can't buy a house in New Orleans," Morris said. "That's a lot of money in this city."
