Groundbreaking on Affordable Single Family Homes in Broadmoor: Nonprofits Partner with City on Pilot
Updated: Jun 23, 2022
NEW ORLEANS--Crescent City Community Land Trust, Broadmoor Improvement Association and Home by Hand will break ground on a single family community land trust home on Tuesday, June 14 at 11:30 am at 3201 Louisiana Ave Parkway. Mayor Cantrell and other public officials will be attending the event.
At the event, Mayor Cantrell will announce a City of New Orleans partnership with Home by Hand and Crescent City Community Land Trust on a pilot program for community land trust properties. Applicants for the Broadmoor homes may qualify for soft second and closing cost assistance through the City’s First Time Homebuyer Program. This is the City’s first endeavor with Community Land Trust properties.
There will be a total of three community land trust single family homes constructed in Broadmoor as part of the project. Each home is approximately 1300 square feet, with three bedrooms, two baths, storm resistant, energy efficient and priced affordably, $143,000 for qualified buyers. Gregory St. Etienne, interim executive director for Crescent City Community Land Trust (CCCLT), says that these homes follow the community land trust (CLT) model, meaning that they’re available in a “neighborhood of opportunity.”
“This is a first in New Orleans,” St. Etienne says. “Working with Home by Hand, we’ve sold 10 single family homes in our city, but these will be the first in a “neighborhood of opportunity.” Broadmoor offers a lot of advantages for its residents, but it’s also becoming more expensive to buy in. Allowing our applicants to be part of the First Time Homebuyer Program is a tremendous opportunity.”
Home by Hand Executive Director Oji Alexander agrees, pointing out that the CLT model helps families stay in neighborhoods that they’ve lived in for generations.
“To buy something similar to our CLT homes in Broadmoor, you would pay around $280,000,” Alexander says. “The CLT model along with the City’s partnership provides an affordable price, locks in a mortgage payment that won’t cost burden the buyer like so many are in New Orleans, and allows the family to build instant equity, or generational wealth.”
Getting families who have been priced out back into Broadmoor was one of the motivating factors behind the Broadmoor Improvement Association (BIA) partnering with CCCLT and Home by Hand, which is one the city’s largest nonprofit developers. BIA President Justin Boone says that CLT homes are an opportunity in battling the city’s ongoing affordable housing crisis.
“Broadmoor has always welcomed people into the neighborhood and we’ve striven to be an example of what a community can accomplish when it collaboratively works to solve problems,” Boone says. “Single family CLTs homes can be a great addition to Broadmoor’s real estate fabric, and, hopefully, we can find more available land to build them on.”
The event begins at 11:30 am and will include remarks by Mayor Cantrell, Alexander, St. Etienne, Boone and others.
CCCLT is partnering with the Broadmoor Improvement Association on the construction of three community land trust homes in the historic Broadmoor neighborhood. The 3 bedroom, 2 bath homes will be available for families making 80 percent of the average median income (AMI) or lower.