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Delille Inn, a senior apartment complex in New Orleans, is owned by the Sisters of the Holy Family. |
The Delille Inn senior apartment complex owned by the Sisters of the Holy Family endured nearly four feet of flooding after Hurricane Katrina, but renovations are underway and former residents are looking forward to coming home by Thanksgiving.
“It’s OK where I am, but I can’t wait to get back into my one-bedroom apartment on the first floor,” Delille resident Lois Sylvester, 75, told The Times-Picayune.
Providence Community Housing is redeveloping the 51-unit Delille Inn in partnership with the Sisters of the Holy Family, the second oldest Catholic religious order for women of color, whose headquarters sit across the street in New Orleans East. Enterprise is supporting the repairs with a $4.7 million investment in Gulf Opportunity Zone Low-Income Housing Tax Credits provided by the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency.
To date, Providence has closed on the financing and begun construction on five senior properties totaling 625 affordable homes in neighborhoods throughout New Orleans, including New Orleans East, Gentilly and Bywater.
Throughout the region, Enterprise has invested more than $76 million in GO Zone tax-credit equity. In New Orleans’ Hollygrove neighborhood, Enterprise partner Humanitas is nearing completion on Wisdom Manor and its 30 brand new affordable senior apartments. Enterprise invested $4.5 million in tax credit equity in Wisdom Manor. The property sits on concrete pillars above the base flood elevation and is built to withstand
130 m.p.h. winds. It features wireless Internet access and a community garden.
“With the reality in post-Katrina that many of our seniors could not get home, it made us all driven and passionate about this project,” said Humanitas Executive Director Bridget Vinson.
College students from across the country recently partnered with nonprofits in New Orleans to develop detailed plans for nine real estate projects. The projects sought to demonstrate feasibility, sustainability and the ability to help build and strengthen the local community.
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A proposal to restore the Franz Building won first place in the Chase Competition. |
The 2008 JPMorgan Chase Community Development Competition
took place in New Orleans after 14 years in New York City. Chase worked with Enterprise and the city’s Office of Recovery and Development Administration to create a rewarding experience for college and graduate students. The competition also sought to help build momentum for the city’s redevelopment, challenging students to create a real estate development proposal for one of the city’s 17 targeted recovery zones. Enterprise managed and coordinated the competition.
A panel of local and national experts judged the proposals. Earning first place was a design team from MIT and Washington University in St. Louis that partnered with the Good Work Network. The students proposed transforming the Franz Building on the historic Oretha Castle Haley corridor in Central City into a thriving center providing support services and incubation spaces to local businesses. The plan aims to turn the important corridor into a “vibrant arts, cultural and retail district.”
Students from The Milano School at The New School for Management and Urban Policy partnered with Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans, to take second place. Their plan entails turning a riverfront property in the Lower Garden District into a blend of affordable and market-rate homes plus retail space. “We are excited about the spirit, imagination, creativity and commitment shown by The New School team,” said Victor Smelz of Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation.
In the Pontilly neighborhood of New Orleans, community leaders have struggled to help seniors return home after the storms. The Tulane University student team – third-place winners – devised a plan to help meet that challenge: the Pontilly Senior Village, offering assisted and independent homes as well as a wellness center. The students partnered with the Pontilly Disaster Collaborative to come up with the economically sustainable plan that promises to revitalize the historic Pontilly section neighborhood.
JPMorgan Chase provided each of the nine qualifying student teams a $1,500 stipend to help defray the costs of participating in the competition. Chase also awarded a pre-development grant to the first-, second- and third-place teams’ nonprofit partners in the amounts of $25,000, $15,000 and $10,000. Read more.
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The redevelopment of the Lafitte community includes input from residents and community stakeholders. |
Development plans are moving forward to bring the historic Tremé community’s vision for a safe, healthy New Orleans neighborhood closer into focus.
Created by Enterprise and New Orleans partner Providence Community Housing, the redevelopment plan incorporates the input of Lafitte residents and community stakeholders. The plan calls for one-to-one replacement of 900 affordable rental homes, 600 new for-sale homes and a full array of resident services. Construction is slated to begin this fall.
HUD and the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) selected Providence and Enterprise to plan, develop and revitalize the community. The Louisiana Housing Finance Agency awarded the mixed-income development $12.8 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Louisiana’s Office of Community Development provided $27 million to ensure the new apartments are affordable to residents at all income levels.
The new development will meet Enterprise’s Green Communities Criteria, providing a healthy living environment and offering residents access to jobs, transportation and services.
Demolition of the old Lafitte buildings began in April, while 94 temporarily repaired apartments are ready for occupancy, giving relocated families the opportunity to move back to the community in advance of the development’s completion. With support from the Freddie Mac Foundation, more than 200 former Lafitte families and residents of Tremé have access to case-management services through the network of Catholic Charities service providers.
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| The revitalized community will meet Enterprise’s Green Communities Criteria, providing a healthy living environment and offering residents access to jobs, transportation and services. |
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Biloxi, Miss., demonstrates what’s possible. |
Less than 18 months after announcing a plan to build back 1,500 homes, the Biloxi Housing Authority is demonstrating what's possible.
In a city that lost more than one-quarter of its homes during Hurricane Katrina, the Biloxi Housing Authority is not only addressing the housing needs of the area's lowest-income families, but providing rental and for-sale housing for individuals and families at all income levels.
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With support from Enterprise, the Biloxi Housing Authority has finished or started construction on nearly 1,000 affordable homes. |
With technical and financial support from Enterprise, the Biloxi Housing Authority – nationally recognized for creating communities of choice for working families – has finished or started construction on almost 1,000 new homes. Among the completed developments is the newly built Cadet Point Senior Village, featuring 75 new affordable apartments, and 39 for-sale homes that are part of the housing authority's successful HOPE VI development.
The housing authority also has nearly 400 homes in the planning stages, including 40 homes to be built on currently empty sites along the Main Street corridor. The “infill” homes will be developed in partnership with several local nonprofit organizations that have joined forces on a coordinated revitalization strategy.
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Yvonne Fields and her granddaughter stand in front of her new home, which is just steps away from the spot where her original Pass Christian home of 40 years stood before the 2005 hurricanes. |
A demonstration program in Pass Christian, Miss., a coastal city just miles from the point hit by Hurricane Katrina’s center, helped to build 64 affordable single-family homes.
ECD/HOPE, in partnership with Enterprise and NeighborWorks America, developed the pilot program following the 2005 disaster. The program took advantage of cost-effective modular home construction and zero-interest “gap loans” to fund the difference between the cost of repairing or rebuilding and homeowners’ resources from FEMA, private insurance and other sources.
The program also offered a variety of related services, including assistance with negotiating fair settlements with insurance companies and FEMA, and applying for flexible mortgages and other financial services from banking partners.
Originally slated to produce 35 homes, Home Again surpassed its goals. With its early success and additional funding from businessman and philanthropist Jim Barksdale, the program created new modular homes for 64 families. The majority have returned home to Pass Christian.
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Pass Christian Mayor Leo “Chipper” McDermott: “Home Again was vital to the city.” |
Among them is Yvonne Fields, whose new home is steps away from where her former home of 40 years originally stood until another home landed right on top of it during the hurricane. Fields says she enjoys her new home and is grateful that she was able to remain in Pass Christian.
For his part, Pass Christian Mayor Leo “Chipper” McDermott praises the program’s catalytic impact: “Home Again was vital to the city. And the best part was that they built in clusters – three, four, five houses at a time – which spurred others to come back and begin rebuilding.”
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many homeowners are struggling to meet their mortgage payments. Compounding the problem, Mississippi has one of the nation’s highest subprime lending rates. In 2005, close to half of all mortgage loans originated in Mississippi were subprime, and many of those buyers are at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure.
In partnership with the state of Mississippi, The Resource Foundation and ECD/HOPE, Enterprise is working to address the foreclosure crisis and its impact on family and neighborhood well-being with a new program to be funded by the Mississippi Development Authority. The effort is an outgrowth of Enterprise’s leadership on the national Save America’s Neighborhoods Campaign, a cross-industry taskforce of organizations concerned about foreclosures and their impact on communities.
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The foreclosure crisis has hit communities throughout the Gulf Coast region. |
The Mississippi Development Authority awarded Enterprise $20 million through the Long-Term Workforce Housing program to acquire and rehabilitate 300 foreclosed properties on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The community stabilization program also will provide foreclosure prevention counseling and emergency assistance grants to help current homeowners avoid foreclosure, while creating a model for purchasing, rehabilitating and selling foreclosed properties.
Says Daniel Womack of The Resource Foundation: “With the clout that Enterprise has, and the money coming down from the state, and the ability to buy the houses at a really reduced rate, we’ll be able to get a few hundred houses back on the market at a price point that’s truly affordable.”
Construction is progressing at St. Bakhita Apartments in the city of Marrero on the West Bank in Jefferson Parish. Developed by local developers Shawn Barney and Arthur McLin, along with Providence Community Housing, the new green complex will provide 100 affordable townhomes conveniently located just across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans.
Enterprise invested $17 million in equity and over $750,000 in predevelopment loans to help replace an unsafe, dilapidated apartment complex with attractive, energy-efficient townhomes with individual porches, ample green space and a community center. Enterprise also provided a $50,000 grant to help St. Bakhita integrate environmentally sustainable design features throughout the new development.
Assisting with planning and design support is Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellow Carey Clouse. Enterprise administers the Rose Fellowship to promote the value of quality design and green building in affordable housing.
Each apartment will feature a full Energy Star appliance package, thanks to a generous donation from Home Depot through Gifts In Kind International. The donation will also provide new energy-efficient appliances to some of the 700 senior apartments that Providence is renovating and rebuilding in New Orleans.
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| Construction is progressing at St. Bakhita Apartments. Located just across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans, the new green complex will feature affordable townhomes for 100 families. |
Enterprise’s Gulf Coast office in New Orleans welcomes two new full-time staff, Tiffany Royster and Monica Gonzalez, plus summer intern Kevin Georges.
Tiffany manages Enterprise lending activities throughout the Gulf Coast region, including the $22.5 million Enterprise Louisiana Loan Fund. She comes to Enterprise from Biscayne Landing LLC, a Miami real estate development company.
Monica is a program officer who recently relocated to New Orleans after three years in Enterprise’s San Antonio office. She manages Enterprise’s Green Communities work in the region as well as grants, contracts and special projects.
Kevin, the office's summer intern, is a graduate student at The New School. |
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