By james art BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Leaders are unveiling six new affordable housing projects in the parish tonight at the Metro Council. If approved, it would be a multi-million dollar investment.
“National data shows that zip codes are one of the biggest determinants in young people’s lives of whether or not they will succeed, provide for their families one day, achieve their educational goals, or whether or not they can to be stuck in cycles of poverty,” said the Mayor’s Office of Community Development Director Marlee Miller.
They are considering an $8 million investment in affordable housing. It was proposed by the Office of Community Development. Miller says these projects will span all of Baton Rouge.
“These projects range from all over Zachary, through Downtown East, to Old South Baton Rouge, Mid-City and North Baton Rouge, so we’re really excited about the variety of projects,” added Miller.
The projects consist of both affordable housing and mixed-use buildings. One of them will be at the old Lincoln Hotel.
“It’s not only going to have affordable housing in it, but space for commercial activities, non-profit activities, so it’s a very exciting opportunity for our community,” Miller said.
Louisiana Housing Corporation has its name on some of the six projects. Louis Russell, head of multifamily housing development at LHC, says the new homes will be safer as well as affordable.
“There’s an economic impact, but also just the impact of families being able to have safe, quality, affordable housing that has built-in resilience to storms and things that we face here, often for those who are most vulnerable , like our seniors and low-income families,” Russell said.
Russell also believes that these types of projects help the surrounding communities as well.
“Having a development with that kind of economic impact, the cost of that adds value to the community,” Russell added.
If the projects are approved, Miller believes these types of projects will help with much more than housing.
“What we really know is important to community development is having residents who have representation and economic power, and when they’re not spending all their money on housing, they can invest in job training and skills development ,” Miller said.
The meeting for these projects will be on November 13.
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