[StBernard] Like St. Bernard, Jefferson Parish could have its own housing issues

[Westley Annis]

Like St. Bernard, Jefferson Parish could have its own housing issues

Published: Tuesday, February 08, 2011, 1:06 PM     Updated: Tuesday,
February 08, 2011, 1:43 PM

 By Richard Rainey, The Times-Picayune 

As St. Bernard Parish concedes its last objections to building a
mixed-income apartment complex in Chalmette, the broader fair housing fight
could soon shift west.

The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center has a standing complaint
against Jefferson Parish, accusing its leaders of discrimination and
actively thwarting plans to build affordable housing units for low-income
residents.

"It ends up being a fairly strong effort (by) Jefferson Parish, not only not
supporting affordable fair housing, but actively working to kill it," action
center Executive Director James Perry said this week.

The action center wants the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
to revoke Jefferson's annual certification that it is promoting fair
housing, Perry said. At stake is more than $5.2 million in grants and
financing that the parish could lose should HUD agree that Jefferson is
violating federal housing laws.

An investigation triggered by the complaint is open and ongoing, HUD
spokeswoman Shantae Goodloe said Tuesday.

The Jefferson complaint, filed in September, lays out an alleged policy
pattern by the Jefferson Parish Council that has "perpetuated segregation on
the basis of race, color and national origin."

It cites three examples in the past five years where the council pushed
policies that effectively ended efforts to build affordable housing on the
West Bank.

In 2006, Volunteers of America sought federal tax credits to build a
200-unit complex for adults 62 years or older in Terrytown. The council
unanimously objected to tax credits being used for such projects. That
killed the deal, the complaint alleges.

In 2008, the council voted to exclude the council's 1st District from a
non-profit company's contract to build affordable housing in Jefferson. A
plan to build the South Village Estates died because of that exclusion,
according to the complaint.

In another instance, a developer decided to build affordable apartments in
Algiers rather than Marrero after parish officials put a moratorium on
developing the site, according to the complaint.

Chris Roberts, the 1st District councilman, said this week that incidents of
crime -- not race -- associated with subsidized housing were what worried
him about new housing developments. He pointed to the "deplorable" condition
of an existing complex that Volunteers of America managed in Algiers.

He said he wasn't against affordable housing "if it's run properly and run
within the context of the way it should be."

The action center leveled its allegations in the last month of interim
Parish President Steve Theriot's administration. Parish President John
Young, who took office in October, couldn't immediately be reached Tuesday.

Young was a member of the council that unanimously approved a moratorium in
October 2006 on tax credits for developing subsidized housing.

Under federal fair housing law, local jurisdictions must identify any
obstacles to fair, affordable housing, then work to eliminate them.

Jefferson Parish did so in 2005 and again in 2010. However, the action
center said the parish never took the appropriate actions in between to
solve the problems found in the year of Hurricane Katrina. The complaint
also states that the parish didn't keep proper records documenting any
changes.

Relative to New Orleans, Jefferson has a small stock of affordable housing
units. The Jefferson Parish Housing Authority, which has come under scrutiny
for its spending habits on administrative costs, manages 200 properties and
77 apartments and outsources to a private contractor its oversight of 2,841
vouchers through the federal Section 8 housing program

Perry said his agency's latest complaint differs from past ones filed
against Jefferson and other parishes. Rather than leading toward a lawsuit
to collect damages, this effort could force the parish to return money it
received through federal grant programs, he said.

Jefferson Parish's housing programs received more than $3.5 million in
Community Development Block Grants, more than $2.4 million through the HOME
Investments Partnership program and another $150,000 in Emergency Shelter
Grants money.

"It's just million and millions of dollars that are at stake, so it's really
a mistake for a (jurisdiction) to ignore these rules," Perry said.