Friends of Lafitte Greenway joined the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance's Put Housing First Rally & March on November 03, 2018. We walked the streets of the Treme/Tulane/Downtown area to spread awareness and increase community involvement regarding the lack of affordable housing in New Orleans. Gathered on the Greenway, Friends read and officially released a statement on housing affordability prepared in collaboration with our Housing Affordability Subcommittee.
Statement on Housing Affordability
Friends of Lafitte Greenway works to create a vibrant and healthy public space that connects people to nature, their destinations, and each other.
We recognize that the Greenway--a public park developed and maintained with public resources--has attracted development pressure in neighboring communities that threatens to diminish the stock of existing affordable housing, and presents challenges for the inclusion of affordable housing in new developments.
We are committed to working with partners and stakeholders to ensure that existing residents in the Lafitte Greenway neighborhoods can continue to live in their neighborhoods and that high-quality, safe, and accessible housing, affordable to individuals and families of all income levels, is available throughout the Greenway neighborhoods.
Friends of Lafitte Greenway encourages developers and individual homeowners along the Greenway to take advantage of tax credits and other creative financing tools to subsidize the production and maintenance of housing that is affordable to a variety of income levels, whether or not it is mandated by the city.
Friends of Lafitte Greenway supports public policies and financial tools that promote housing equity and affordability in the Greenway neighborhoods, including the following:
- Reauthorization of the Neighborhood Housing Improvement Fund (NHIF) as an important resource for creating and preserving affordable housing opportunities, supporting low-income homeowners, and generally maintaining healthy and stable neighborhoods.
- Short Term Rental regulations that are designed to preserve neighborhood integrity and prevent displacement, and which contribute in some way to the generation or preservation of affordable housing.
- Support of the ongoing work being done by the City Planning Commission, City Council, and the Mayor’s office to explore, design, and implement a Smart Housing Mix in the City of New Orleans. We call on these policy makers to recognize the Greenway’s role as a newly established transportation corridor and its growing potential to spur trail-oriented development, and urge them to consider targeted implementation of a broad mix of mandatory inclusionary requirements and incentives in the Greenway neighborhoods.
FINAL: October 30, 2018
Do you like this page?