[StBernard] Controversial St. Bernard apartment complexes still not built

[Westley Annis]

Controversial St. Bernard apartment complexes still not built
Published: Sunday, September 05, 2010, 7:30 AM 
 Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
 
The federal court battle over fair housing in St. Bernard Parish dragged on
for months last year, with parish government officials found in contempt of
court for repeated attempts to thwart construction of mixed-income housing
developments.

Times-Picayune archiveIn 2008, rebuilt houses stand next to empty lots in
St. Bernard Parish. Parish residents have argued against the construction of
the four apartment complexes, saying they aren't needed and would bring
crime to St. Bernard.
After a string of defeats in U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan's
courtroom, parish officials ultimately granted the building permits last
fall for a Dallas developer to build four 72-unit apartment complexes in
Chalmette.

But nearly a year after the parish approval, the apartments have yet to
materialize. Since late last fall, there has been no visible construction
activity at any of the four sites.

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro said he has 
heard nothing from the Dallas developers, Provident Realty Advisors, and
noted that the building permits granted last October have technically
expired because construction hasn't begun.

Officials with Provident did not respond to requests for comment on the St.
Bernard developments. The slowdown on the apartments is not unusual in this
economic climate.

Construction of affordable housing developments across the region, including
the redevelopment of the Big Four public housing complexes in New Orleans,
has been hampered by various regulations governing the tax credits that are
crucial to financing such projects.

Most pressing is a Dec. 31 "placed in service" deadline to use Gulf
Opportunity Zone tax credits as equity to finance the construction. That
means the units must be built and ready for occupancy by the end of this
year -- an unrealistic deadline that has chilled potential investment.

The deadline could jeopardize more than 6,000 affordable units slated for
construction in the region.

U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and David Vitter, R-La., supported a
provision in March that would have extended the deadline through the end of
2012, but the amendments were eventually stripped from the jobs bill. 

In addition to the tax credit deadline, Louisiana is 
struggling with a wrinkle in the federal tax law that prevents
disaster-affected states from taking part in low-income housing benefits of
the 2009 stimulus bill. The U.S. Treasury Department determined that the GO
Zone tax credits cannot be rolled into a stimulus provision that allows
state housing finance agencies to grant federal money for low-income housing
projects due to the slowdown in private investment.

Congress would need to act in order for those GO Zone credits to be
exchanged for cash under the stimulus provision.

Annie Clark, the policy director for the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency,
said the tax policy interpretation affects Gulf Coast states and other
disaster-affected states such as those in the Midwest affected by flooding.

"We don't feel that the disaster credits here or in the flood states should
be excluded," Clark said. "Our states are almost doubly in need of these
credits because we had so much housing destroyed by these disasters."

The St. Bernard apartments touched off a bitter court battle last year
between the parish and the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center,
the plaintiffs in the case alongside Provident. The Parish Council had
instituted a moratorium that was struck down by Berrigan, and later the
parish's Planning Commission repeatedly denied routine resubdivision
requests needed for the developers to proceed with construction.

Parish residents showed up in force at numerous meetings to protest the
apartment complexes, saying they weren't needed and would bring crime to St.
Bernard. A decision is still pending in federal court on the question of
damages and attorneys' fees.