It's a problem New Orleanians know all too well: Housing costs in the city have skyrocketed in recent years, forcing long-time residents to cheaper suburbs and shrinking the city's tax base.
Past efforts to help people with their rent and mortgages, funded by sparse, mostly federal funds, have barely moved the needle. And production of new housing has come to a crawl in recent years.
Now, city officials are asking voters to approve a plan to dedicate millions of local tax dollars a year to housing affordability programs, an attempt to prevent displacement of residents of various means who are struggling to pay their bills.
The proposal, which will appear on ballots this November, will result in no new taxes, and will generate about $17 million per year for housing programs. If voters reject it, ordinances passed by the City Council provide the same, though less-binding solution. Council members recently provided the most information yet about how the plan would work.
Supporters say it's overdue in a city where many are frustrated by the lack of affordable housing. They say voter approval would enshrine the funding in the city's charter, ensuring it is protected even if councils change.
"We know a lot of our population is moving outside of New Orleans because of the affordability issues that we face," said Council member Lesli Harris, who authored the ordinances to create the trust fund and ballot measure. "If there is a stock of clean, safe, affordable housing within the city New Orleans... that will create economic growth; that will keep population here."
The idea has drawn wide support. But some housing advocates say the city could be doing more. And others say officials must make the case to voters that a local housing fund will be used quickly and wisely.
A past fund, the renewal of which voters rejected in 2021, was often raided for other priorities.
"My number one thing is being able to convince voters this is not the same old stuff," said Fred Johnson, CEO of the Neighborhood Development Foundation, which works with low-income homebuyers.
Fund logistics
Harris and other backers aim to do just that. A website has been launched -- Yes To NOLA Housing -- and yard signs are going up, with the support of a dedicated political action committee, registered to an address associated with local government relations firm Crane Strategies.
When the fund -- pulled from about 2% of city general funds each year -- is parsed out, it won't be City Hall calling the shots on where it will go. Instead, the quasi-public Finance Authority of New Orleans and the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority will help decide, according to the ordinance.
Aiding them will be a seven-person advisory panel, with members appointed by the council, the mayor, and housing nonprofits.
Supporters say that's the answer to concerns that led voters in 2021 to reject the renewal of a property tax millage first adopted three decades earlier to support housing and economic development. The old fund generated only as much as $4 million annually in its later years and the city frequently diverted it to other needs, according to the nonprofit good-government group, the Bureau of Governmental Research.
They say that in the absence of local dollars, affordable housing nonprofits and developers have played an increasingly desperate game of jigsaw with pieces of federal and state aid.
"What we have been doing is cobbling together funding," said Brenda Breaux, executive director of NORA. "If you knew that there was a dedicated source of funding, there would be projects that you could line up and prioritize -- you would be in the driver's seat."
Under rules the council passed last week, about a third of the money each year would be used to either create or maintain affordable rentals. About 15% would help create or preserve affordable homeownership opportunities.
NORA and FANO would get a 10% cut for administrative fees, and officials would sock away 5% in a reserve fund for housing emergencies.
The rest of the money - about $8.5 million under this year's budget - would be open for any affordable housing-related use.
All of it would provide lower-cost options for an estimated 650 households a year, Harris said.
BGR, which is planning a report on the city's proposal before early voting begins in October, declined to comment recently on the plan. So did a spokesperson for Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who has previously supported affordable housing initiatives.
A worsening crisis
The plan comes as symptoms of the city's housing crisis continue to worsen: Homelessness continues to increase even as the city invests millions in housing people; new housing developments have stalled as developers face down high insurance and construction costs, and evictions are on the rise as renters confront high rents and stagnated wages. To meet demand, the city needs an estimated 47,000 additional affordable rental units, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
In recent talks, officials and housing advocates have crafted a long wish-list for the funds: programs to support homebuyers, to provide gap financing for affordable housing developers, and to subsidize fortified roofs and other weatherization work for homeowners and small landlords.
Importantly, they say, the money won't come with the sorts of income restrictions that now dog some programs. Often, recipients of housing aid must earn less than of 80% of the area median income, which was $73,800 for a three-person household in 2023, or up to 120% of that -- $88,560.
"You sort of are out of these programs, but you still are housing burdened," said Harris.
Federal programs also don't provide cushion for high development costs, such as those associated with insurance and construction, said Nicole Barnes executive director of Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative.
"It's not enough to address the incredible need we have right now," Barnes said of the city's plan. "But it's a step, and one of the largest steps we've ever had."
More than anything, Barnes and others are hopeful that the additional funds could stem the flow of people being priced out of the city. Census data show that New Orleans lost more than 20,000 residents due to out-migration between 2020 and 2023.
Christopher Sadler, who moved from his New Orleans East home to Slidell in May, said he might have stayed if he'd had help keeping up his property.
"The cost of living in New Orleans went up extremely," said Sadler. "Once they make it to where it's uncomfortable, you have to move on."
Eviction concerns
Though many housing advocates support the idea, some have scrutinized the city's lack of investment in other housing programs, like for renters facing eviction.
The city stopped taking new applications for its pandemic-era rental assistance program in July as it neared the end of a $83 million pot of federal funds. Officials have announced no plan to find new funds for the program.
At the meeting, Harris said that dedicating housing trust fund dollars to rental assistance would eat up the entire fund.
Daiquiri Jones, an organizer with Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, a housing advocacy group, argued that the housing trust fund investments would be less effective without rental assistance alongside it.
"Even if it was just a month of assistance or two months of assistance it would go a long way to preventing a lot of evictions," Jones said.