What does it mean to go home for the Holidays?  For some, “home for the holidays” means going across town to a sibling’s or cousin’s house for a big meal with all the family.  Others will “go home” to their old neighborhood to reunite and celebrate with friends and neighbors.  School, job, or other life circumstances keep some New Orleanians elsewhere most of the year — the holidays mean coming home to the city they love.

Four years ago, fewer than 91,000[i] New Orleanians were home that Thanksgiving after Hurricane Katrina made landfall and the levees failed.  Many who were here lived in temporary housing, not yet back in their own homes.  They lived in a foreign city: one devoid of familiar landmarks, lost without old routines.  Many had to drive long distances to purchase groceries and lived without working kitchens in which to cook the traditional holiday meal.

Recent estimates suggest that by Thanksgiving of this year, New Orleans will have 78% of its pre-Katrina population, though this number includes newcomers as well as those who lived here prior to August 2005.   But living in New Orleans costs more than it used to.  41% of renters in Orleans Parish spend more than 50% of their pre-tax income on housing costs, which include rent and utilities.  Rising insurance and utility rates, combined with the cost of repairs, mean homeowners are also struggling with the increased cost of housing: more than one of every three homeowners spends more than 30% of pre-tax household income on housing.[ii]

The federal government defines households that pay more than 30% of their income on housing as “housing cost burdened.”  Such unaffordable housing costs often force families to cut costs on other expenses like healthcare, schooling and/or food.  The Community Revitalization Fund at the Greater New Orleans Foundation, founded in 2007 by 21 local and national foundations, envisions a city where safe, high-quality, and affordable housing — housing that does not cost more than 30% of income — ­ is available for all who want to live in this city we call home.

This Thanksgiving holiday, we give thanks for the countless volunteers and the generous donors who have worked — and continue to work —  so hard to help our neighbors come home.  We also give thanks for the citizens of New Orleans who are volunteering their time, energy, and passion working tirelessly to rebuild this City so that all of us can be home for the holidays.

[i]McCarthy, Kevin, D.J. Peterson, Narayan Sastry, Michael Pollard. The Repopulation of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina. RAND Gulf States Policy Institute : 2006

[ii] Plyer, Allison, Elaine Oritz, Margery Austin Turner and Kathryn L.S. Petit. Housing Production Needs: Three Scenarios for New Orleans. Greater New Orleans Community Data Center: November 2009.

Some folks use data to prove the dire need for more low-income housing in New Orleans. Others use data to demonstrate we have too much housing. What happens if both are true? Well, that’s where the Data Center comes in. We sort through a mountain of data to help you understand how two seemingly contradictory realities can be true, and guide you through thinking about what to do about it. We can do this because we present data that’s neutral, not designed to simply prove one point or another.

The Data Center, in collaboration with the Urban Institute, recently released a report entitled Housing Production Needs: Three Scenarios for New Orleans.

Here’s the skinny: there are too many units—market rate units, that is. There aren’t enough units that are affordable for the city’s many low wage workers. And as future workers arrive some market rate units will fill up, but only if jobs pay high enough wages.

There are currently 45,000 households in New Orleans paying unaffordable rents relative to their income-plus 11,500 homeless people. With those kinds of facts, it’s just impossible to claim that New Orleans doesn’t need any more affordable housing.

Make no mistake, demand for subsidized rents is still quite high. It’s demand for market rate rentals that has weakened. So what do you do when market rate vacancies are rising but many people still can’t afford housing? Well, you’re just going to have to read our report.