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“Lafitte Will Get New Lease on Life”

The Housing Authority of New Orleans agreed Wednesday to pay developers more than $2.1 million to create a mixed-income community at the site of one of its shuttered public housing complexes, the first formal step in the agency’s plan to redevelop its hurricane-damaged apartments.

The Lafitte complex, closed since Katrina made landfall 13 months ago, is now in the hands of Providence Community housing and Enterprise Community Partners Inc., which promise to build 1,500 housing units with varying rents.

“HANO staff believes that a unique opportunity exists for the redevelopment of the Lafitte public housing development and surrounding neighborhoods of Treme, Tulane and Gravier, pursuant to a comprehensive and coordinated plan of financing by and among the federal, state and local levels of government,” the agreement says.

The lease has Providence and Enterprise paying $1 per unit per year for 99 years.

Lafitte, a cluster of brick buildings that borders Treme and Mid-City, was home to 865 people before Katrina. But for the past year, it has remained empty and renting the barriers from Vacant Property Securities since last fall.  

Article “Lafitte Will Get New Lease on Life” from The Times-Picayune on Thursday, September 28, 2006.