[StBernard] New Orleans now: HUD's first comprehensive housing survey since Hurricane Katrina

[Westley Annis]

You run like Hell when 3 things are presented to you:

1. When you're accosted by someone who is shooting at you.

2. When a vehicle goes out of control at a Motorcross racing track,

3. When the word HUD is introduced into your community, and there's little one can do to avoid it

(*like the bullet and the car out of control).

--jer


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New Orleans now: HUD's first comprehensive housing survey since Hurricane Katrina

As the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina passes, residents of New Orleans are still suffering, plagued now not only by the storm itself, but with the Gulf spill, the full impact of which we can't even yet predict.

At $81 billion, Katrina was America's most expensive natural disaster, and among the top five in cost to human life. When we gauge recovery from such devastation, we can try to gauge the impact these disasters on housing trends- or at least the Department of Housing And Urban (HUD) can. Obviously, housing data are telling in assessing economic health, which is why this newly released report matters so much. It is the first comprehensive report on the New Orleans metro area since Hurricane Katrina.

HUD's 2009 New Orleans Metropolitan Area Housing Survey is the most comprehensive analysis of housing stock since HUD's last substantive assessment in 2004 (prior to Hurricane Katrina) and includes data from Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, and St. Tammany Parishes. This 2009 survey provides a critical point of comparison since Hurricane Katrina and offers a progress report of redevelopment following the storm. 

This report is badly needed: with people still living in temporary housing and struggling with a second hit to their economic well being, data show a 13% drop in housing units and a 33% hike in housing costs since 2004. 

Key Findings

Monthly Housing Costs: The median monthly cost of housing in the New Orleans metro area was $882 in 2009 compared to $662 in 2004, a jump of 33.2 percent. While this significant increase is true for both owner and renter occupied units, the trend is largely attributed to the decline of mid-priced rental units ($300-$600/month) from 66,300 in 2004 to just 19,300 in 2009. The median rent charged to New Orleans tenants was $689 in 2004 compared to $876 in 2009, an increase of 27 percent. (The 2004 housing cost data noted above have been adjusted for inflation to reflect 2009 dollars to provide a true comparison.) 

The survey also calculated worst case housing needs in the New Orleans metro area. These are very low income, unassisted renter households who either paid more than half their income on rent, lived in severely inadequate housing or both. HUD found that while the total number of renter households declined by 32,000 from 2004 and 2009, the number of worst case renter households grew by nearly 6,500 or 22 percent.

Composition of the Housing Stock: HUD estimates that in 2009 there were 511,000 residential housing units in the New Orleans metro area compared to 587,000 units in 2004. This 13 percent decline is largely explained by demolition activity, particularly among older single family attached homes built prior to 1979. In addition, approximately 24,700 new homes were constructed in the New Orleans metro area between 2004 and 2009. Considering the loss of many older homes and the addition of newly built units, the median year of construction of housing stock is currently 1972 compared to 1960 prior to Hurricane Katrina. This 2009 survey also indicates there are an estimated 72,500 vacant housing units in the New Orleans metro area.

Primary Source Interviews

Based on in-depth interviews with residents of approximately 3,000 housing units, HUD estimates that more than 80 percent of households were forced to move because of Hurricane Katrina and approximately 12 percent still consider themselves in flux. HUD also found that approximately 298,000 households were forced from their homes for at least two weeks after the storm; most families moved twice or three times and some moved as many as ten times.

Federal Response

Since President Obama took office, HUD has worked with 350 local housing authorities around the country to extend housing assistance for more than 30,000 families who were on the verge of losing their temporary assistance. In addition, HUD provided permanent housing support for more than 12,000 of the most vulnerable households.

HUD has also helped stimulate privately owned affordable housing developments, creating 8,400 new affordable homes in New Orleans since 2009. In total, this means there is more federally assisted housing in New Orleans today than there was before Hurricane Katrina. This information obviously can be read in both a positive and negative light.

Of the 252,000 owner-occupied housing units that sustained damage during Hurricane Katrina, 90 percent have undergone repair through private insurance payouts, federal flood insurance and/or homeowner assistance grants provided through Louisiana’s HUD-funded Road Home Program. More than 52 percent of owners of damaged units reoccupied their homes while only 25 percent of homeowners reoccupied their severely damaged units. More than 18,000 area homeowners either have or intend to elevate their homes. In addition, almost than 11,000 homes were razed or condemned due to Katrina damage, but nearly 10,000 of these were rebuilt.

Beyond HUD

Katrina's wrath, coupled with the Gulf oil spill disaster, wreak more havoc than any one agency can possibly handle, no matter how dedicated, no matter how well meaning. When Chronicle writer Bill Fink wrote from a "tourist's perspective how the city of New Orleans is marching on from Katrina and what scars still remain," he reminded us all that tourism will be a lifeline to the area, one that hopefully will not badly weaken in response to Gulf spill side-effects. Those who now consider visiting New Orleans and bringing in badly needed tourism dollars would do well to remember their visit would be inspiration as well as as support: after all, despite it all, New Orleans does march on. 



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ontheblock/detail?entry_id=72662#ixzz10GJx8BvQ