NEW ORLEANS — Accessibility to affordable housing has been an ongoing issue across the country. Here at home, the New Orleans city council is making moves to fix that issue. At a council meeting at the end of May, the council allocated a $32 million for a gap fun to support affordable housing development.
District B Council Member Lesli Harris said, "I'm very excited about it."
That fund largely supported by the American Rescue Plan Act, is called the Affordable Workforce Housing Gap Financing Fund. The money will act as a gap or buffer funding for developers who are actively working on affordable housing projects across the city.
Harris said, "These are 14 existing projects that are in the pipeline that have experienced shortages because of construction coast, insurance costs."
Her goal now is to secure some sort of long-term funding for the fund so a long-term investment in affordable housing is secured.
"I think that in the future, we need to be looking at other sources of funding so that we have an evergreen pot of money that can assist with gap funding," Harris said.
However, some housing advocates feel something needs to be done to help residents today, not years down the line.
Andreanecia Morris, the Executive Director of Housing NOLA said, "They are missing too many opportunities to put the people of New Orleans first."
While Morris applauds the gap fund, she said the city is looking far ahead and not looking at what can be done today to ease the housing crisis. Morris said the most recent example of this this the council's failure to move the Healthy Homes Ordnance forward at a recent council meeting.
"They take a step forward, while simultaneously taking several steps back," Morris said. "Before they voted to delay it, they actually gutted it. So that was something that would set the standard, set accountability standards for most of the people who live in New Orleans, but they decided not to do this. They decided not to do this in a meaningful and impactful way. We need policy, that means our leaders taking demonstrable ineffective action."
One suggestion according to Morris would be city support for local landlords and property owners. She believes this could help get 20% of the homes currently vacant in the city get back up and running.
In a statement Harris said, "I support Cm. Morrell's continued work on the Healthy Homes ordinance, and we are further than ever before. I want to highlight that today's meeting represented a big win for affordable housing in New Orleans. The council approved a contract to retain a national expert on addressing homelessness, installed a temporary ban on new commercial STRs, passed a motion to incentivize affordable homeownership development, and introduced anti-retaliation legislation that protects renters who report code violations."
Harris said the council is looking at multi layered solutions from every angle.
"We're looking at blighted properties, coming up with solutions to stop chronic homelessness, all of this is a very holistic thing that we really need to address but this council is really committed to the creation of more affordable housing," said Harris.