Tracking funding to restore the moved houses

Here are two items that popped up recently that pertain to the need to restore some of the scores of houses moved from the VA Footprint:

The City is requesting a release of $6 million in federal funds from the LA OCD.  Enterprise Community Partners will administer the program, a "Construction Take-Out Loan Program."  The program will finance loans to developers and individuals rehabilitating single-family and two-unit homes.

Importantly, "Structures relocated from the VAMC and UMC sites will receive first priority for construction (rehabilitation) loans."

It's interesting, too, that the notice also serves as a "Finding of No Significant Impact" - and mentions NEPA, but not Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (unless one discerns it in "NEPA and related laws and authorities").

-----

Here's the other item - a proposed allocation of $7 million to rehabilitate the moved houses located in the City's 2011 "Consolidated Plan" for use of its HUD CDBG dollars:

City of New Orleans to use additional federal dollars to fund moved VA house rehabs

Per a notice in the Times-Picayune, the city's Office of Community Development is amending the Consolidated Plan of 2008, which, as I understand it, governs the use of Community Development Block Grant (CBDG) monies in the city, to add the following moved VA houses to the Neighborhood Stabilization (NSP) Program, thereby providing funding to move the properties back into commerce:

613 N. Rocheblave
619 N. Rocheblave
627 N. Rocheblave
631 N. Rocheblave
633 N. Rocheblave
635 N. Rocheblave
1718 Bienville
1722 Bienville
1726 Bienville
1730 Bienville
1803 Bienville
1833 Bienville
2010 Bienville
2224 Bienville
2410 Bienville
2310 Iberville
2630 Palmyra
220 N. Derbigny
421 N. Miro
3000 Conti

These are the destination addresses of the houses in questions.  Significant amounts of work have already been done on many of these.  The total amount of funds involved is $2,302,208, but there are other properties involved that are not moved VA houses or Builder of Hope sponsored.  Builders of Hope is the sponsor for the houses listed above.

Moved House Rehab - A Step Forward

This bid request notice appeared in today's Times-Picayune.

VA Footprint Houses Head into Hoffman Triangle

A new colony of moved VA Footprint homes continues to emerge along First Street above S. Claiborne in Hoffman Triangle, part of the greater Central City area, not far from the old Calliope projects.

I headed out amidst the rain the other day to snap a shot of the homes as they're settling slowly into their new locations.  So, the shots look a bit gray.

As you can see, the homes are sitting up rather high on piers, many temporary - likely raised basement homes in waiting.  But it's good to see them being placed sustainably for the moment since the area flooded rather heavily during Katrina.

The immediate neighborhood is in rather rough shape, to be frank.  So the influx of houses, in my opinion, stands to re-anchor a struggling neighborhood - sort of like putting down strong new roots where things have too often washed away.

The LSU/VA Hospitals are a dark cloud for many who lived and/or live inside the Footprint.

But the house moving effort, if anything, is a silver lining - one that won't be fully discernible, I'd wager, until a few years have passed.