Housing for some

I used to be the Executive Director of a Baton Rouge foundation that developed housing for mentally ill people. Many were homeless and all were low income. I enjoyed real estate development and the challenges of providing housing for low income people. We all knew the housing projects in New Orleans had failed. Now there is an opportunity for providing good low income housing with HUD grant money, with the projects largely out of service. When I did that in Baton Rouge we provided a lot of housing and brought revenue into the foundation at the same time.

For now, there is condo development everywhere. There are two new developments near the coffee shop: Spain St and Burgundy at Elysian Fields. Rob DeJean is the developer on both projects. I've been watching progress on the location on Spain St and it looks like really first class work. Construction on the other location has not yet begun.

Housing is such a big issue here. There is the matter of what rights former residents of the projects have (and where those rights come from). There is also the matter the rights of homeowners in flood prone and flooded areas. Under what circumstances should taxpayers subsidize housing? (directly or indirectly) What public policy goals are met by establishing rights in these two cases? We can explore these questions further if you're interested.