Faubourg Lafitte
For Enterprise Community Partners
and Providence Community Housing, there were two key conditions for
redeveloping the Lafitte public housing project: one-for-one replacement for
the public housing units, which was not required by HUD when it announced that
the “Big Four” would be transformed into mixed-income communities; and to track
down as many of the former residents to give them priority for the new housing.
To replace all 900 subsidized units and create a mixed-income community, it meant the development team would need to construct 1,500 total units on the former Lafitte site in New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood and on scattered sites in the surrounding community.
Enterprise and Providence, who partnered with the L+M Development Partners and HANO, had to overcome deadline challenges and the Great Recession, but funding is now in place for the first large phase of 812 units. At press time, 584 units had been completed, 106 were under construction, and 122 were in predevelopment. The first residents moved into completed homes in January 2011. The remainder of the units will be completed in future phases.
“We expected we would be a lot further. We thought we would have been where we are now five years ago,” says Michelle Whetten, Gulf Coast vice president for Enterprise. “But it has taken three or four years longer than we or anyone would have expected.”
As for the former residents, Whetten says at the time of the storm 865 units had been occupied. The community organizing nonprofit the team hired tracked down about 550 residents scattered in 37 states. Those residents were apprised of the redevelopment plans through monthly newsletters and were offered social services through Catholic Charities.
A conscious effort also was made to involve former residents in the design process. Architects did planning sessions with the residents in Baton Rouge, La.; Houston; and New Orleans.
“The results have exceeded our
expectations for return of residents,” says Whetten. “About half of the
residents of the new housing were residents of the former Lafitte development,
which is higher than the typical return rate. And we are pretty pleased with
what ultimately got built, and it is a very close reflection of what residents
said they wanted to live in.”