New Orleans City Council considers plans for affordable housing in Hollygrove

The New Orleans City Council will soon consider plans to build 43 new apartments in the Hollygrove-Dixon neighborhood, a project praised as key to city officials' effort to expand affordable housing in the city. 

The City Planning Commission in May approved developer Paul Irons' proposal to build a community called The Grove on the corner of Earhart Boulevard and Monroe Street. That plan now heads to the council and will likely be considered June 17, a council staffer said.

Affordable housing advocates and preservationists praised it as a way to ensure families of lower incomes can continue to afford to live in New Orleans.  

"This project will bring back to occupancy an entire block, based of now blighted, historic doubles," said Nathan Lott of the Preservation Resource Center. "This is a win for Carrollton and Hollygrove and powerful example of synergy between our city's preservation and housing goals." 

New Orleans has struggled in recent years to build enough affordable housing to meet demand. The waitlist for subsidized homes is now 20,000 people, and the city isn't on pace in its effort to build 33,600 more affordable units by 2025, according to reports by housing advocacy group HousingNOLA. 

That's meant that all too often, residents have been forced to live away from reliable bus lines, jobs, and retail stores. Some are priced out of the city limits entirely.  

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