Week in Review, Jan. 22-26: New Affordable Housing, Port NOLA Progress

Thumbnail Img 4294 1 — Tuba player Steve Glenn leads a performance at a Sept. 22 event for Habitat for Humanity. He said buying a home from the nonprofit brought him a “level of calm that came from not having to stress about someone raising my rent next week.”

NEW ORLEANS — On Jan. 22, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity leaders and supporters gathered for the ground breaking of Rising Oaks, a 150-home affordable housing community that will fill the 44-acre site of the former Plantation Golf & Country Club on Behrman Highway in Terrytown, La.

Habitat has built 750 homes in its four-decade existence, but it has never undertaken a project of this scale. Jefferson Parish has committed $5 million to get the project to this stage, and the nonprofit expects the final price tag to hit $56 million.

It’s a “wild-ass idea,” in the words of the nonprofit’s Executive Director Marguerite Oestreicher, that has captured the imagination — and support — of area housing advocates, business leaders and elected officials.

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Habitat expects to cover about 60% of the project’s cost from public sources and the rest will come from donations. A capital campaign is underway, and, barring any major obstacles, the entire project could be complete in five years. A favorable purchase price of $3 million for the entire property has helped keep costs down.