Louisiana is a little late to the party, but it’s finally gotten on the right track when it comes to housing policy.
The state recently announced, through the Louisiana Housing Corporation which is a state agency that administers federal and state funds through programs designed to advance the development of energy efficient and affordable housing and run by appointees by various state officials but the majority by the governor, that it bid to oversee housing policy in New Orleans. As federal housing grants have a ceiling that go to an area, if money goes to the state to use, other entities won’t have it.
And almost certainly the state will grab control of the around $50 million the area will get because its plan, unlike the theory behind those of the present lead agency the nonprofit UNITY of Greater New Orleans, is congruent to best practices that the Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development recently adopted. While state and local government and nonprofit representatives rank the applications, HUD has the final word.
