13 October 2025
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
HousingNOLA recently gave New Orleans a failing grade on its final report card on the state of affordable housing in New Orleans.
The report card scored the city’s success rate in seven areas: preserve and expand supply of affordable units (38%); prevent future displacement (45%); enforce and promote fair housing policy (36%); encourage sustainable design and infrastructure (34%); increase accessibility for all (33%); strategic goals (63%); and improving quality of life (33%). The overall score was 40 percent.
The report card was part of a 10-year strategy and implementation plan tracking whether elected officials, lenders, policy makers, developers and city and state housing agencies have delivered on their commitments to provide affordable housing to local residents. In the ten years the report card has been issued, the city has only received a passing grade three times and has never received a grade higher than B.
Ten years ago, the strategy and implementation plan showed that New Orleans needed 33,600 affordable housing units. That number was increased to 47,000 due to skyrocketing prices. With the current insurance crisis, the number of affordable rental opportunities needed has climbed to 55,000. From September 2024 to August 2025, the city only created 435 housing opportunities, according to HousingNOLA.
The report card noted that even homeowners making $75,000-$100,000 a year are cost-burdened, which means they are paying more than 30 percent of their income toward costs like insurance, taxes and utilities. To afford the median home in New Orleans at $245,000, renters need an income of $86,000 without subsidy or an income of $70,000 with the existing soft second program.
The report card stated there are more than 40,000 vacant housing units in New Orleans. Ten thousand vacant units are currently for rent and another 10,000 either need repairs before occupancy or are undergoing repairs. “Some would suggest that this would mean it’s a buyer’s market, however high interest rates and spiking insurance costs mean that homeownership is a risky investment,” stated the report.
Population loss is also a problem.
According to U.S. Census figures, New Orleans lost over 25,000 residents between 2019 and 2023. The report speculated that rising prices, COVID-related unemployment and Hurricane Ida-related expenses may have contributed to these losses.
Andreanecia Morris, executive director for HousingNOLA, said city leaders have taken some steps to improve affordable housing in New Orleans, such as allowing owners to build four-plex apartment buildings if one had previously existed on the site. But, she added, city leaders then undermine efforts like these with moves like downzoning parts of districts C, D, and E to where only single-family homes can be built. She criticized what she called “a lack of consistency and accountability” among local government leaders.
“It’s frustrating for renters, homeowners and landlords,” Morris said. “Our leaders need to accept they can do something about this crisis.”
Morris was also highly critical of the state’s insurance industry, pointing to many denied claims in the wake of Hurricane Ida, which has caused some local residents to still be living in homes with tarps on the roofs. She also expressed concern about how much more population the city could lose if another big storm hits.
But Morris was not entirely pessimistic about the future, either. “Over these last ten years, we’ve had victories – short term rentals, the Healthy Homes initiative, the Smart Housing Mix – but they’ve all taken way too long and been undermined by our elected officials at every turn,” Morris said. “This next ten years, with the community’s resounding support of the Housing Trust Fund, the people will come together stronger, to demand their leaders make better decisions. Together, we will hold them accountable,” Morris said.
The Healthy Homes program became effective in January 2024 and required owners of rental properties to register for a Healthy Homes Certificate of Compliance. The Healthy Homes Ordinance was passed in November 2022.
New regulations on short term rentals placed a one-per-square-block limit on them. Non-commercial short-term rentals require an owner present when the property is rented out. Critics of short-term rentals had long argued their recent proliferation had priced many locals out of New Orleans neighborhoods.
HousingNOLA will continue to implement its Housing for All investment strategy, which will work at the neighborhood level. One focus will be on weatherization and roof fortification to bring unused properties back online and help mitigate the insurance crisis.
Recently, a city advisory committee discussed plans to allocate funds from New Orleans’ first dedicated funding stream for affordable housing. Voters approved this fund in November 2024. Two percent of the city’s annual budget will be dedicated to affordable housing initiatives. The first batch of funds is expected to be about $14 million and will be dispersed in 2026. However, this number could change as city government officials cope with a $100-million budget deficit.
An October 7 Nola.com article reported that $7 million will subsidize developers and property owners as they build more rental units and rehabilitate existing ones. $4 million would subsidize new, for-sale affordable homes and an owner-occupied fortified roof program for low-income homeowners.
Requests for comment to New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell, Councilmember Helena Moreno, Councilmember Oliver Thomas and state Senator Royce Duplessis were not returned as of press time.
This article originally published in the October 13, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.