by Kate Moran, The Times-Picayune
Friday March 07, 2008, 2:04 PMBy Kate Moran
Business writer

Comprehensive Central City Initiative, a partnership that includes faith-based groups, private developers and a major local bank, plans to build 178 houses that will be leased to low-income renters who will be encouraged to buy the property one day.

“We’ve been trying to address the problem of blight and inadequate housing, both before and after Katrina,” said Terrell Clayton, the group’s president.

The group acquired the land from the city, which took some lots through eminent domain and others through the tax adjudication process. A few of the lots were previously owned by the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority.

Ashton Ryan, president of First NBC Bank, said the partnership had already completed more than 30 houses around the city and planned to do 178 more. He said public and private investment in the project amounted to $20 million.

To be added to a waiting list for the program, prospective renters should call OSC-Management at (504) 887-0900.

Operation Reconstruct is a free work-readiness and pre-apprenticeship certificate training (PACT) program developed by Home Builders Institute (HBI) and The Paxen Group. Program participants will receive classroom and worksite instruction and training in employability and life skills, worksite safety and proper tool use, basic residential carpentry, electrical, and plumbing, and construction math. Find out more in the Job Training Section at LouisianaREBUILDS.info.

The chairman of the U.S.’s largest bookseller, New Orleans officials and other recovery leaders participated in a ceremonial groundbreaking for a $20 million housing initiative. Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio is funding the expansive project to build new houses for residents displaced by the storm 2 1/2 years ago, focusing on the Gentilly neighborhood.”Project Home Again,” a plan to build 20 new, elevated houses for lower-income families, is believed to be the largest single philanthropic project in the city since Hurricane Katrina. Under the plan, Gentilly residents who lived in the racially diverse, mixed-income neighborhood at least two years before Katrina and who still own property there would swap their uninhabitable, storm-damaged homes or empty lots for new houses. Those families then would get forgivable mortgages, over five years, before owning the new houses outright.

Officials hope to begin construction as early as this spring and complete work on the homes within a year. Riggio said he and his wife, after seeing the devastation wrought by Katrina, felt that citizens had a responsibility to reach out and help those affected. Their goal was not just to build one scattered house at a time but to build community.