While New Orleans endures a housing crisis โworsening by day as residents struggle to find or remain in affordable living arrangements,โ city planners recommend that new developments include affordable units.
from the New Orleans City Planning Commission staff recommends those units remain affordable for at least 99 years and create housing in centrally located and desirable neighborhoods where cost-burdened residents are feeling the squeeze or displaced further from work, schools and other services.
In August, the New Orleans City Council tasked the CPC staff with studying three types of โinclusionary zoningโ policies as part of the creation of a so-called โsmart housing mix,โ revisiting the results of a 2017 study that recommended the city adopt similar rules.
Those recommendations were shelved. This year, Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed a measure that would prevent municipalities from instituting their own inclusionary zoning requirements, only on the condition that New Orleans decide whether it wants them, otherwise heโll plan to sign similar legislation next year.
City planners are asking for more time to determine how New Orleans can best address its affordable housing crisis by requiring affordable uni…
Last month, the CPC staff asked for an extension on its 2018 report, but commissioners glimpsed their reluctance to weigh in on a complex issue up against Edwardsโ deadline.
(Commissioner Walter Isaacson said heโd be โdisinclinedโ to vote for any inclusionary zoning recommendations โwithout us understanding whether this is the best way to get people into better housing.โ)
But the CPC and city officials have had those recommendations and studies for more than a year; the latest round adds its support for the three kinds of zoning that Mayor LaToya Cantrellโs administration are considering. The CPC staff admits the city also is working on a tight deadline with possible pre-emption at the state level as the housing crisis is โworsening.โ
The agency behind a 10-year affordable housing plan for New Orleans is giving itself a D for 2018, admitting a year of โtremendous and sometim…
The report argues that adding inclusionary zoning to the cityโs Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance โ the cityโs governing land-use document โ โis one of the ways in which the city can work toward addressing the housing crisis. The staff believes that the creation of inclusionary zoning regulations is an integral piece of an overall housing policy that seeks to address the cityโs housing needs.โ
According to the report, those needs are critical. Residents struggle to find โsuitable affordable housing anywhere in the city, but especially in the neighborhoods in or near job centers, near transit lines, and close to schools.โ
โAttend almost any public meeting and quickly the conversation about the housing needs and lack of affordable housing for the cityโs residents, who include working families, low- to moderate- income individuals, single-mothers, service industry workers, teachers, public service workers, and several more who fall into the category of being cost โ or in a growing number of cases, severely โ burdened, becomes a disconcerting conversation.โ
The staff argues the city needs โtoolsโ to address the affordability crisis, made worse by โclaims that wages are not growing to meet the demand for higher costs of housing, transportation, medical care, and lifeโs basic necessities along with the reductions in federal funds that have been used to help fill in some of the gaps.โ
Those tools include the creation of three types of zoning overlays and districts in areas where disparities exist, or that allow some flexibility in zoning or density on the condition that affordable units be created.
Housing NOLA executive director Andreanecia Morris tells Gambit that even with the reportโs recognition of the housing problem, and the years-long argument for mandated affordable housing creation, advocates face an uphill battle with a commision with an โobvious, gross misunderstanding of the circumstances as well as the need of a solution that could be brought to bear.โ
โWill we exhibit the courage necessary to take up the challenge from the governor to bring this much needed program into reality?โ Morris asks. โAnd will we consistently enforce it?โ
With a limited availability of federal funding, more cities are looking at local options to support affordable housing by leaning on legislati…
Morris objects to the idea that market forces following the proliferation of luxury housing will drive down prices as demand isnโt met, as Isaacson and other commissioners have suggested.
On Nov. 13, the CPC will review the staff report and determine whether to support those recommendations before they head to the City Council.
Cashauna Hill, director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, tells Gambit that a smart housing mix is โsomething our residents need to afford living in New Orleans.โ
โNow the City Council has to take action on this critical issue,โ Hill said, โso we can prevent more families and individuals from being priced out of New Orleans."