(The Center Square) − The city of New Orleans has poured tens of millions of dollars into building and subsidizing housing since 2020, but the city’s real estate market remains among the worst in the country for metropolitan areas.
That’s because constructing more affordable housing with city subsidies doesn’t address the real issue.
“Population growth is one of the quickest cures to real estate problems,” the University of Mississippi wrote in a blog. “Unfortunately for New Orleans, the city has experienced a decline of 3.3% in population over the last 10 years. So, the population of New Orleans is going in the wrong direction to help the city’s housing market.”
The city committed $54 million in 2024 alone to produce 1,200 new units by 2025 and has committed $62 million to fund 11 projects for rehabilitation or new construction, including $21 million in federal HUD funds. As of this year, 11 projects are still waiting to secure developer contracts with $25 million in subsidies attached.
Since 2020, at least six apartment complexes have been constructed.
But many of the apartments built with city or federal help rent for prices far above what many New Orleanians can afford. Bienville Basin apartments, constructed with public dollars, list one-bedroom units starting at $1,339 a month.
St. Bernard Circle apartments – subsidized with $1.5 million from the city – rent for $1,200 for a one-bedroom and $1,500 for a two-bedroom. Under HUD’s affordability standard, which caps rent at 30% of income, a renter would need to earn about $60,000 a year to afford a two-bedroom unit at St. Bernard Circle.
The budget of the city’s Office of Community Development, which oversees housing programs, has soared since the pandemic. The Center Square was unsuccessful getting comment from the Office of Community Development.
Its proposed operating budget jumped from $82 million in 2021 to $126 million in 2022, fueled largely by COVID emergency funds, before ballooning to $163 million in the final adopted budget.
Federal dollars have remained the bulk of its funding ever since, with $121 million of the office’s $156 million budget in 2023 coming from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and another $74 million of its $101 million budget in 2024. For 2025, about $68.9 million still comes from the federal government.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office has repeatedly framed housing as a top priority. “The Cantrell Administration has prioritized expanding affordable housing opportunities in New Orleans as residents continue to navigate the ongoing detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the mayor’s office said, citing $81 million in rental assistance distributed to more than 24,000 households and $2.5 million in utility aid to about 3,000 households since March 2020.
Some developments have additional red flags. The leasing office for Grove Place has a disconnected phone number, and Align Properties – which managed The Reveal apartments in eastern New Orleans – no longer has a registered website domain.
Two of the properties have broken links to their leasing offices and the property manager. In the case of The Reveal, constructed in east New Orleans, the property’ manager Align Properties no longer has a registered website domain. For Grove Place, the leasing office’s phone number was out of service.
Even as the city ramps up spending – its total housing office budget topped $100 million in 2024 – the overall market remains bleak. A 2025 report ranked New Orleans’ housing market 99th out of 100 nationally.
“The mission is clear: to facilitate the development and preservation of quality housing for persons of low and moderate income,” the office declares in its mission statement.
