Most of damaged housing in NO was affordable, low income housing (HUD)

[Wordie]

This information is from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, prepared from HUD numbers: http://www.nlihc.org/mtm/mtm10-36.html#18

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Nearly 90% of Rental Housing Damaged in New Orleans Affordable to Low Income Households

Housing Units (by Affordability Category)

All Units Destroyed or Damaged (Total / Percent)
Extremely Low Income: ---* ---*
Very Low Income: 57,410 / 40%
Low Income: 54,611 / 38%
Other Income: 30,668 / 21%
TOTALS: 142,690 100%

All Rental Units Destroyed or Damaged (Total / Percent)
Extremely Low Income: 16,094 / 20%
Very Low Income: 24,861 / 32%
Low Income: 29,459 / 37%
Other Income: 8,338 / 11%
TOTALS: 78,753 / 100%

All Low Income
All Units: 112,021 / 79%
Rental Units: 70,415 / 89%

* HUD does not provide data in this dataset on extremely low income homeownership units

Source: NLIHC Research Note #05-02
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Note that when it says "HUD does not provide data in this dataset" that the probable reason for that, I am assuming, is that extremely low income households rarely own their own homes.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Aluminum and vinyl siding don't hold up. Next time...

they have to build BETTER.

[Wordie]

4. From what I could see, a lot of it was built WAY before the aluminum and

vinyl siding era...very old (at least that's what it looked like on tv). It's not unlikely that some of the housing stock was BETTER than that of the aluminum and vinyl siding era, albeit very run down (some of it).

Still, you are very right, it needs to be done MUCH BETTER this time, and it DOES need to be done. Housing for low-income people needs to be replaced with better low-income housing, not mini-mansions for the rich and upper middle class.

[Erika]

2. I hope Donna remembers this in her partnership with W

to rebuild New Orleans.

[snot]

3. Useful info--kicked and nom'd! -nt

[Wordie]

5. ...and as I think about it, those numbers may be low, because who knows if

HUD is able to count those rental units that are bootlegged. Bootlegged units would include all those not on the official books, not built with a permit, etc., that would not show up on the official tax rolls. This kind of unit is more likely to be a low-income unit.

So, I have no idea how to get ahold of that kind of data!

It's also important to remember that these are the numbers from NO only. They don't include all those other communities throughout the Gulf Coast, some of which were totally wiped out.

[cyr330]

6. Quality?

The public housing in New Orleans is among the worst in the country. It was built long, long, long before aluminum siding came into existence. The buildings were not kept up at all by the city, and most of the whites always stated that the "blacks can't even maintain their own places." What the whites failed to notice was that these buildings were rentals, and why should tenants be required to perform maintenance on rental property?

The city is so corrupt that when refrigerators and air conditioners were taken out to the projects to replace the worn out ones, the new ones would often just disappear.

If anything good comes out of this hurricane, it will be the demolition of some of these hell holes like the Desire and Basin Street Housing Projects.