HousingNOLA Unveils Official 10-Year Affordable Housing Implementation Plan
NEW ORLEANS – HousingNOLA, a program of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance (GNOHA), unveiled its official strategy and implementation plan to increase access to affordable housing over the next decade.
The plan was developed over the last year by an executive committee of representatives from a number of housing advocates and developers including the city's Office of Housing and Community Development, the Foundation for Louisiana, the Louisiana Housing Corporation and the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA).
"The HousingNOLA is the result of several entities partnering to develop a blueprint to address the city's affordable housing challenge," Mayor Mitch Landrieu said. "Affordable housing is one of the top priorities of my administration, and we are pleased that many of the City's initiatives are reflected in the HousingNOLA. We look forward to continuing to develop solutions that make New Orleans a place that everyone can call home."
The plan offers solutions and implementation strategies to address the ongoing city-wide struggle of residents to find affordable housing as median incomes fall and rent, home prices and insurance costs rise. The plan outlines a process to create 3,000 affordable housing opportunities by 2018, for a total of 5,000 housing opportunities by 2021.
"We've reached a turning point in this city where we see residents being priced out of neighborhoods they've grown up in," Flozell Daniels, CEO and President of the Foundation for Louisiana said. "We need to create a community that supports a mix of incomes throughout New Orleans."
In addition to the increase in affordable housing opportunities over the next decade, HousingNOLA also addresses partnerships between the public and private sectors to increase funding and civic engagement to meet projected needs and prevent future displacement.
"This is a problem that truly effects everyone in this city. More than 70 percent of all households pay one-third or more of their income towards housing costs," GNOHA's Chair of the Board of Governors Andreanecia Morris said, "We're really proud of the strategy behind this plan because everyone has an opportunity to be a part of the solution."
The Ford Foundation served as a major sponsor of the plan as a continuation of it's involvement in rebuilding the city post-Katrina.
"A decade since Katrina, New Orleans has rebounded in ways once thought unimaginable by some. Our challenge now is to harness that growth in a way that advances equitable development and protects communities and culture bearers from being squeezed out by the very same progress they've worked so hard to achieve," says Jerry Maldonado, Senior Program Officer at the Ford Foundation.
