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In the final weeks of 2007, Enterprise and its partner Providence Community Housing finalized a $41 million investment in Gulf Opportunity Zone tax credits from the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency – an important step in a larger plan to create 7,000 affordable homes in New Orleans.
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New Orleans Groundbreaking: Enterprise Community Partners President and CEO Doris Koo speaks with property management staff from Christopher Homes, Inc. |
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The GO Zone equity will help renovate and rebuild 474 homes in four affordable apartment complexes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Three of the buildings provide senior housing in New Orleans: Nazareth Inn and Nazareth II, along the edge of Lake Pontchartrain, and Annunciation Inn in the Upper Ninth Ward’s St. Roch neighborhood.
Residents of all three senior buildings will be able to return home before the end of 2008. "I've been praying for this," Annunciation Inn resident Ethel Moran, who relocated to Texas after the storms and now rents an apartment in Baton Rouge, told the The Times-Picayune at a groundbreaking last December.
Nazareth Inn, Nazareth II and Annunciation Inn are part of Enterprise and Providence’s plan to redevelop six senior developments with more than 700 affordable housing units. In total, Enterprise will invest more than $60 million in equity in Providence’s senior portfolio. The three other properties will be rehabilitated by midyear. Project-based rental subsidies at all of the developments will ensure affordability for returning residents.
Each property will feature modernized units, a multi-purpose space and kitchen, and a courtyard. Providence, along with Christopher Homes and Catholic Charities of New Orleans, will provide comprehensive support services, including meal programs, mental health counseling, transportation, exercise therapy and nutritional guidance.
The fourth property is St. Bakhita Apartments, an innovative new-construction property developed by Providence and local co-developer SHA Consulting. St. Bakhita will feature 100 affordable single-family townhomes with up to four bedrooms for families earning less than 60 percent of area median income.
Located just across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans, on the West Bank in Jefferson Parish, the site offers proximity to family support services, schools, churches, and public-transit access to downtown. Environmentally sustainable design features will be integrated throughout the site with support from an Enterprise Green Communities grant. A new community center will provide residents and neighbors with space for meetings, job training and after-school programs.
In December, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Enterprise a $1.5 million three-year grant to support Enterprise’s Gulf Coast work. The Gates Foundation resources will help enhance progress on the recovery and rebuilding of storm-damaged areas in Louisiana and Mississippi. The funds will enable Enterprise to address the region’s severe affordable housing needs, restore and strengthen neighborhoods, and link individuals and families to jobs, education and other basic resources and services.
In the days before Christmas 2007, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to proceed with the rebuilding of several public housing developments. The landmark decision paved the way for Enterprise and Providence Community Housing to begin work on a major redevelopment plan to create a vibrant mixed-income community on and around the site of the former Lafitte public housing complex in the historic Tremé community.
“We listened to the residents who want to come back home to a stronger, healthier community. Today, the City Council listened as well,” said Doris W. Koo, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners.
HUD and the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) selected Enterprise and Providence to plan and develop the revitalized community. The Providence-Enterprise team is working to develop mixed-use, mixed-income properties that will include 900 subsidized rental apartments and 600 homes for first-time homeowners and working families. The plan also calls for a full array of resident services.
The Louisiana Housing Finance Agency awarded the Providence-Enterprise team $12.8 million in Gulf Opportunity Zone low-income housing tax credits toward the Lafitte plan. This allocation of credits will ultimately lead to an investment of more than $110 million in equity from Enterprise. The state’s Office of Community Development has awarded $27 million in Community Development Block Grant funds toward the development.
The right of return for former residents is paramount to Providence and Enterprise. A phased rebuilding approach will accommodate individuals who wish to return right away. The plan calls for immediately rehabbing at least 94 apartments for short-term residence as well as preserving three historic buildings and the Sojourner Truth community center.
Enterprise and Providence have resolved to ensure that every resident continues to have a voice in the rebuilding effort. Said Koo: “We are very excited to continue our work with the families and other community leaders so, together, we can cooperatively create a neighborhood of choice.”
The city council’s unanimous vote came after months of debate. It drew extensive media coverage, including editorials supporting the Enterprise-Providence proposal in The Washington Post and The New York Times. “The Lafitte design shows that it is possible to satisfy the need to replace destroyed public housing and to create vibrant new communities of mixed incomes,” The Times wrote.
Three-hundred displaced individuals and families who are expected to return to the Lafitte public housing site in New Orleans’s historic Tremé community will have access to comprehensive resident services. The services are made possible by a $900,000 multiyear grant from the Freddie Mac Foundation.
The grant will support a partnership between Enterprise, Providence Community Housing and the Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans. A three-tiered program will provide residents assistance with their return, access to basic human necessities, and support with attaining self-sufficiency. The first wave of residents will return this spring.
The Rockefeller Foundation recently provided Enterprise with a $250,000 grant to establish a permanent office in New Orleans. The vital resources will help form a foundation for the sustainable production of affordable housing and accelerate rebuilding in storm-damaged neighborhoods.
Headed by Local Office Director Michelle Whetten, who has led Enterprise’s Gulf Coast initiative since 2006, the office is dedicated primarily to building the capacity of the region’s affordable housing developers. The continuing redevelopment of the Tremé community will be another primary focus of the office.
Enterprise’s team in the Gulf includes Enterprise Homes Director of Development Matt Morrin, previously with the National Capital Revitalization Corporation, and Program Officer Monica Gonzalez, who is relocating to New Orleans after several years of supporting Enterprise’s affordable housing and community development work on the ground in San Antonio.
In early January, Enterprise made the first acquisition loan using capital from the Louisiana Loan Fund. With support from Volunteers of America, the $3 million loan will enable the Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation to acquire a property overlooking the Mississippi River in downtown New Orleans.
The site will be redeveloped to create a mixed-income mid-rise apartment building. It will provide quality rental homes for employees of the office-support, restaurant and hospitality industries in the central core of New Orleans, where rebuilding continues following Hurricane Katrina.
Enterprise and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) jointly administer the Louisiana Loan Fund. The Fund provides loans to developers who acquire land or buildings for development to replace housing that was lost or severely damaged due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Eligible applicants may borrow up to $200,000 for Early Predevelopment expenses and up to $3 million for Acquisition/Predevelopment financing to purchase properties and complete predevelopment activities prior to construction closing.
The Enterprise Community Loan Fund seeks a Senior Program Director of Lending, based in New Orleans. This position is responsible for managing the $22.5 million Enterprise Louisiana Loan Fund and other lending throughout the Gulf Coast region. Find out more.
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