State officials say the Road Home program will not be allowed to go after homeowners for grant overpayments until a government panel reviews each case, and the head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority promised that compassion will be used in any reclaiming of grant money. (more…)

 THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

A U.S. Census Bureau survey says the parish was home to 423,520 people in July, which parish officials call low.The latest attempt to size up Jefferson Parish has stripped it of two distinctions its politicians have spent more than a year heralding: its steady growth and its status as the most populous in the state.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the parish was home to 423,520 people in July, about 30,000 fewer than those tracked in the 2000 census. The figure also knocks Jefferson down to second place behind East Baton Rouge Parish in the population race that emerged from New Orleans’ flooding and displacement in 2005.

Jefferson leaders aren’t buying the count and plan to formally contest the federal estimate, just as they did earlier this year when the state notified Parish President Aaron Broussard that Jefferson’s size for state purposes was similarly low. (more…)

By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau, The Times Picayune
WASHINGTON — HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, whose advocacy for a plan to demolish public housing units in New Orleans and replace them with mixed-income developments generated international controversy, announced Monday that he will leave the job April 18.

His resignation as head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development comes after two influential senators said his ability to oversee a federal program to help homeowners facing foreclosure had been undermined by ongoing grand jury and housing inspector general investigations into alleged sweetheart deals.

One issue is Jackson’s role in granting contracts for friends at housing authorities in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands and accusations by Philadelphia housing officials that HUD moved to deny financing in retaliation for the city’s refusal to sell land to a friend of Jackson’s. (more…)

THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

FEMAs slow pace in producing a strategy to house displaced disaster victims has irritated lawmakers, particularly those along the Gulf Coast. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA provided trailers for hurricane victims.

WASHINGTON — FEMA on Tuesday missed a second deadline for producing its plan, in the works since the 2005 hurricanes, for housing displaced victims of the next major American disaster.

The congressionally mandated report was supposed to be finished last June. Criticized for the delay, a top FEMA official promised at a hearing last month that it would be ready by April 1. It is now unclear when it will be done. (more…)

St. Tammany Parish business leaders are moving forward with a plan to build affordable housing for workers such as police officers and nursing assistants who are increasingly priced out of the post-Katrina real estate market.

The plan would establish what is known as a community land trust, with a nonprofit group owning land that it leases to homeowners for a nominal fee.

Prices would be within reach of those who currently cannot afford a home in the parish because the trust would retain title to the land and the buyer would own only the house itself.

Representatives from the Northshore Business Council, a newly formed group led by former Parish Council member Pat Brister and lawyer Howard Daigle, described the plan at a conference Tuesday in Madisonville.

The business council, along with the parish government and the St. Tammany Housing Partnership, soon will commission a feasibility study at an estimated cost of about $30,000, half of which will be financed with grant money from Habitat For Humanity St. Tammany West. The other half will likely come from the parish, which may eventually donate land to the trust.

Read more on Affordable Housing . . .

The State of Louisiana will hold a public hearing to obtain views on the housing and community development needs of the State; those comments will assist the agencies in developing the Consolidated Annual Action Plan for FY 2009. For those persons who are unable to attend the public hearing, written comments on the needs of the State may be submitted beginning April 2, 2008 and will be accepted until April 11, 2008. Written comments may be mailed to the Office of Community Development, Post Office Box 94095, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9095 or faxed to 225-342-1947.

The public hearing will be held on April 2, 2008, at 1:30 p.m. in the V. Jean Butler Board Room in the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency building. The Louisiana Housing Finance Agency is located at 2415 Quail Drive which is off of Perkins Road near the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. This facility is accessible to persons with physical disabilities. Non-English speaking persons and persons with other disabilities requiring special accommodations should contact the Office of Community Development at 225-342-7412 or at the mailing address or fax number in the preceding paragraph at least five working days prior to the hearing. (more…)

The Family Self-Sufficiency Program: HUD’s Best Kept Secret for Promoting Employment and Asset Growth (Adobe Reader required) is a 2001 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that describes the FSS program, how it benefits tenants and PHAs, and how it could be more effective.

The Housing Program of Jefferson Parish is currently not taking applications for persons wishing to apply for Section 8.

The Housing Program of Jefferson Parish covers all areas of Jefferson Parish except Kenner, which is administered by the Kenner Housing Authority.

Crowds brave storm, lines for housing help
by Mary Sparacello, The Times-Picayune
Wednesday March 19, 2008, 8:05 PM

Photo by Donald Stout/The Times-Picayune

Literally thousands of people were lined up at the Kenner Housing Authority office Wednesday waiting to sign up for Section 8 housing vouchers. (more…)

by Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune
A network of private relief workers that helped thousands of battered families put their lives together after Hurricane Katrina has begun unraveling with thousands of families still on waiting lists, even as its managers cast about for new sources of money to keep it going at a reduced level. (more…)