NEW ORLEANS — For a lot of families in New Orleans, trying to find affordable housing, especially during a pandemic, isn’t easy, but certainly needed. A program with city and community support is trying to change that.
Chelsi Hampton-Gourrier is a property manager for a company that’s offering up 75 proprieties to help ease a housing problem in New Orleans.
“We really have not had issues with receiving rent,” she said. “Our goal has been to really offer affordable housing that’s comfortable, that’s secure for New Orleanians.”
That goal is one Andreanecia Morris hopes other landlords have as well.
“People need that solid foundation,” Morris said.
As executive director of Housing NOLA, Morris is helping lead an incentive program designed to connect families in need of housing to landlords who have vacant properties. Landlords get guaranteed fair market value for their property while families get to rest easy. Through grants and other funding Morris says about 1,600 families are ready to move in, but there’s a problem.
“They’ve got the assistance necessary to get housing and they just can’t find it,” Morris said.
Morris says that’s in a city with an estimated 16 -18,000 vacant rental units.
“It’s a huge mismatch,” Morris said.
With the COVID pandemic creating more vacancies and an urgency to house families, Morris hopes landlords will step up.
“COVID has dramatically changed this market and so what we need landlords to do is think hard and to think about what is best for them and what is best for this city,” Morris said. “Why are you ignoring this opportunity?”
“There’s nothing you can lose,” Hampton-Gourrier said.
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It’s an opportunity Hampton-Gourrier says is keeping her units rented and families with a place to call home.
“It’s really something that can help yourself as well as the tenant,” she said.
Landlords wanting to sign up for the new Incentive Program should contact HANO’s Landlord Liaison Wendy Demery Andrews at wdemery@hano.org or call (504) 670-3488 for more information on the Landlord Incentive Program. To find out how to become a landlord and register your property with HANO, visit http://www.hano.org/Landlords .
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