[StBernard] Parish didn't want apartments, but renters do

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Thu Feb 16 08:58:45 EST 2012


Parish didn't want apartments, but renters do

(FOX 8 News)

Print Story Published: 2/15 2:28 pm Share Updated: 2/15 2:30 pm
CHALMETTE, La. (AP) - St. Bernard Parish's vocal and expensive opposition to
four mixed-income apartment complexes in Chalmette hasn't made much of a
dent in renter interest: The apartments are filling up fast. And a new
administration says the fight belongs to past officials, and they hope to
end it soon.

After a little more than a month on the market, the most focal of the four,
the Parc Place complex on Judge Perez Drive, already has tenants or
commitments for 70 percent of its 72 units.

With about 60 walk-ins per week, it's quite likely the remaining apartments
will lease soon.

"New Orleans has the highest percentage of renters of any metro population
of the southeast or southwestern United States, and St. Bernard has been
dramatically underserved compared to others in our area," said J. Mark
Madderra, president of the Apartment Association of Greater New Orleans.
"They could have built 500 units and they would have filled up. They could
have built a thousand."

With nearly all of St. Bernard's housing units swamped by Hurricane Katrina
floodwaters, the parish experienced the most dramatic population decline of
any in the state and still remains 47 percent below its 2000 figure of
67,229 residents, according to the 2010 census.

Cliff Reuther, an Arabi resident and a manager-broker at Prudential Gardner
Realtors, wasn't surprised the new Chalmette apartment complexes are in such
demand as he says there is a dire need for ground-up housing construction in
the parish and that ultimately that is what will drive people back.

"We have so much to offer, with the public schools, a junior college, low
crime, the new hospital almost completed, retail very strong now,
industrial-base jobs, recreation, a civic center, and all a 15-minute drive
from the CBD and French Quarter. But the biggest thing you are lacking right
now is new construction," said Reuther, who also is secretary of the parish
Economic Development Foundation. "People want to walk in and see new carpet
and the smell of new paint, but we're still recycling homes that were built
before Katrina."

Reuther mainly was referring to single-family homes but said the same
principles likely would hold true for apartments and that a mosaic is needed
in a real estate landscape, from single-family homes to rentals, "to ignite
the same real estate fire that is driving people to the north shore."

SUBSIDIZED RENTALS

All four of the Chalmette apartment complexes have 70 percent of their total
288 units subsidized by federal tax credits with the remaining 30 percent at
the full market rate. About $32 million of the complexes' $60 million
construction cost came from the tax credits, with another $19 million in HUD
Community Development Block Grant money coming through the state's Office of
Community Development.

The low-income housing tax credits are federal subsidies given to private
developers to provide affordable housing and then property managers must
maintain the units for a minimum of 15 years and adhere to state and federal
inspections or risk losing the tax credit investments.

To qualify for the subsidy, residents must make less than 60 percent of the
parish's median income, or less than $37,140 for a family of four, according
to Helen Hayes, the regional property manager for Atlanta-based Lane
Management LLC, which oversees the complexes.

The subsidized rent is about 11 percent less than the full market rate.

Based on the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency's 2010 affordable housing
needs assessment, about 41 percent of St. Bernard households would qualify
for the subsidized Chalmette apartments. A study of St. Bernard by national
research firm PolicyLink found 42 percent of the jobs in the parish do not
support market rents.

That's compared with about 35 percent of households in the New Orleans,
Metairie and Kenner areas, according to the state assessment.

Donna Savoie, who manages the four Chalmette apartments for Lane Management
LLC, says the occupants so far are very diverse, "from New Orleanians to
military, the Coast Guard and refinery workers." She says most of the new
tenants were attracted to the area because of St. Bernard's strong public
schools.

POOLS AND PLAYGROUNDS

Each gated community contains a swimming pool and tanning deck, a communal
sitting area with a fireplace and kitchen, a business center with computers
and Internet access, a gym, a playground with benches for parents, and
picnic areas and grilling stations. Each apartment has a full-size washer
and dryer, ceiling fans, wood floors, a walk-in closet in the master
bedroom, and a patio or balcony.

There are 800-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bath units going for $613 or $688
per month, depending on whether you qualify for the subsidy; 950-square-foot
two-bedroom, two-bath units for $730 or $826 a month; and 1,165-square-foot
three-bedroom, two-bath units renting for either $844 or $954.

Metrowide, rents average about $722 for one-bedroom units to $1,155 for
three-bedroom, two-bath units, according to a metro rental database.

In addition to Parc Place, the complexes include Wood Crest on Patricia
Street behind the Wal-Mart; Magnolia Park on Rose Avenue; and Riverview on
St. Bernard Highway. Wood Crest had 52 of its 72 units occupied or
pre-leased as of last week. Magnolia was at 37 percent and Riverview at 22
percent.

Lane employees have turned down more than half of the applicants because of
results from a background check that includes a criminal search, Hayes said.

"We are very picky about who we accept. They are screened coming and going,"
she said. "We want a nice, clean community that is a pleasant place to live
a good life."

One of the fears expressed by opponents of the apartments is that they would
deteriorate into Village Square, which before Katrina encompassed a maze of
more than 500 apartments in the heart of Chalmette. When built in the 1970s
it similarly was an anomaly in a parish of single-family houses, but soon
became infamous for drug use, overflowing garbage dumpsters, burned-out
buildings and abandoned cars.

And when public opposition against the current apartments rose to a boil in
2008 immediately after its developer, Provident Realty Advisors, first
proposed them, the parish government and council fought tooth and nail
against the complexes.

COST OF OPPOSITION

Stands against the apartments have already cost the parish about $2 million,
including about $1.5 million in attorney and settlement fees paid out to
Provident and the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Actions Center, along
with about $400,000 in its own attorneys' fees. Meanwhile, a contempt of
court order at the end of last year could cost the parish at least another
$1 million.

That cost could climb higher still: The U.S. Department of Justice on Jan.
31 filed suit against parish government, saying that the parish, "under the
pretext of post-Hurricane Katrina recovery planning, engaged in a pattern or
practice of discrimination on the basis of race." And several other parties
have also made financial claims against the parish in recent lawsuits.

Among them, the New Orleans-based fair housing agency recently filed another
suit focusing more specifically on nine individuals allegedly harmed by
multifamily and rental restrictions since Katrina.

Opponents of the four 72-unit apartments, largely led by condominium owners
abutting the Parc Place units, typically did not talk in terms of race, but
often said additional rental units were not needed and feared they would
drive down real estate values in the area. They labeled themselves the "red
shirts," as they'd wear that color to Parish Council meetings to indicate
their opposition to the development.

Parish government's attempts to block the complexes, meanwhile, wound up in
federal court. The developers and the New Orleans-based fair housing agency
filed suit, alleging the parish's attempts to curtail mixed-income rentals
violated the Fair Housing Act as African Americans in metro New Orleans are
statistically much more in need of such housing.

U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan found the administration of former
Parish President Craig Taffaro and previous Parish Council in contempt of
court six times, stating their opposition fit discriminatory patterns the
parish had exhibited since Katrina.

Now with a new parish president and five new faces on the seven-member
Parish Council, the parish appears to be taking a different stance.

"I have seen no problems with the apartments. I don't see any now, nor do I
anticipate any," newly-elected Parish President Dave Peralta said, adding
that he and the council are committed to settling the suits against the
parish as quickly as possible.

New Councilman Casey Hunnicutt said "in the past, we have looked at the bad
things the apartments could bring, but let's look at the positives and
welcome them for providing additional housing."

"Let's open our arms to people moving into the apartments and hope that we
can move forward together and show everyone what a great place St. Bernard
is to live," Hunnicutt said.




More information about the StBernard mailing list