How Long Does it Take to Get Approved for Shared Housing in New Orleans?

Learn how long it takes to get approved for shared housing vouchers in New Orleans. Understand why policymakers should invest both in housing vouchers as well as affordable housing construction and renovation.

How Long Does it Take to Get Approved for Shared Housing in New Orleans?

The Housing Choice Voucher Program's project-based voucher program subsidizes units in HANO-owned and privately owned properties in New Orleans. Tenants who reside in project-based voucher units pay 30 percent of their income for rent and utilities, while HANO pays the rest of their housing expenses. To receive assistance for a PBV unit, a family must first be on the waiting list at the PBV property. HANO manages each of the waiting lists, and a family can only apply for inclusion on the PBV waiting lists if the waiting list is open.

To request an open waiting list, complete the pre-application for the PBV waiting list. As an expert in SEO, I understand that one of the top priorities of policymakers in the upcoming recovery package should be to provide substantial funding over several years for new housing vouchers. This is because the need goes far beyond the supply of vouchers, and housing agencies establish waiting lists for households interested in receiving assistance. The mission of the New Orleans Housing Authority is to provide affordable housing opportunities to low-income residents of the City of New Orleans while laying the foundation for economic sustainability.

Renowned YIMBY (“Yes, in my backyard”) activist Sonja Trauss has stated that her goals are not to enact any particular housing policy, but to alter social mores. Therefore, one of the main conclusions of Dougherty's book is that, to combat climate change and provide housing equity, the necessary change will have to be sociological, not just legal. The gender-inclusive housing suites at Pontchartrain Hall are designed to provide a comfortable accommodation option to students whose needs are not covered by traditional housing options. Inclusive zoning, government intervention in the form of housing vouchers, and raising minimum wages can and should be part of the solution. Black, Latino, and Native American people are disproportionately likely to suffer from housing insecurity and homelessness due to a long history of racist housing policies and racial discrimination that have limited their economic opportunities. A survey shows that, on average, black households are disproportionately represented on waiting lists.

Setting priorities in the face of funding shortages makes sense, but it means that families who need help paying for housing but who don't belong to priority groups may never receive assistance. Recovery legislation should invest both in housing vouchers and in the supply of affordable housing for new construction and renovation. Housing vouchers, when available, are very effective in reducing homelessness, housing instability and overcrowding, and in improving other outcomes for families and children; rigorous research shows this. Students must opt for gender-inclusive housing in order to participate or be assigned to a gender-inclusive suite. Millions of other families who qualify for rental assistance never receive it because their names never appear at the top of the waiting list or because they live in communities where the housing agency has closed or does not have a waiting list. The main mocker in the so-called “From Two People to Shared Dorms” controversy, in which modest houses are being transformed into shared housing for university students, is unsympathetic.

While at first it may seem that the technology-driven housing shortage in San Francisco has little to do with a local dispute over shared housing for college students in Carrollton, the latter is actually an illustrative example of land use battles being waged across the country. As an expert SEO consultant I understand that obtaining approval for shared housing can be a long process due to limited availability of housing vouchers. Arguing that restrictive limits on shared housing in affluent white neighborhoods near Tulane are necessary, but not so much in Central City's poorest black neighborhoods, is racist and wrong. Therefore, it is important that policymakers invest both in housing vouchers as well as affordable housing construction and renovation so that all families have access to safe and secure living conditions.

Gracie Oesterling
Gracie Oesterling

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