It seemed like a simple enough question: How much of a $25 million annual federal allocation did Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration spend last year to help struggling residents and address blight? The precise figure is a hard to cipher, city officials said. On the one hand, the city spent more than $25 million because of […]
Tag: CDBG
Posted inLand Use
All-but-certain loans and grants aimed at reviving key intersection in Broadmoor
By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer | Some corners in this city tell quintessentially New Orleans stories, and among them is the intersection of South Broad Street and Washington Avenue. There on the trafficky Broadmoor bend, King’s Meat Market and Grocery sells gumbo-ready mixes of seasoned poultry parts named for whichever store employee or […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City forced to tweak spending as $38B federal budget cut ripples downstream
By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer | Two months after President Barack Obama and Congress averted a government shutdown by eliminating $38 billion in federal spending for 2011, New Orleans is feeling the pinch. The $2.8 billion cut to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development budget has crimped the city’s Office of […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Public comments invited on plan to spend $28.8 million
City officials will hold a public hearing tonight on how to spend $28.8 million in federal anti-poverty and homelessness grants. The federal money, computed using formulas that take into account local poverty rates, is a key source for emergency shelter, affordable housing and social-service programs for low-income, homeless or HIV-positive Louisiana residents. In 2009, an […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Consultants at first questioned “urgent” tag of new hospital
Consultants who helped former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin secure $75 million in federal Katrina recovery grants for the construction of a new Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lower Mid-City initially questioned the legality of using federal disaster recovery grants for a project that would not be complete until seven to 10 years after the […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Fresh-food, investment plan may be in list of 100 projects
The 100 fully funded projects that Mayor Mitch Landrieu plans to unveil Friday, on his 103rd day in office, may include neighborhood-based recovery programs, as well as bricks-and-mortar projects. Designed by the staff of former recovery czar Ed Blakely and financed out of a $411 million pot of federal Disaster Community Development Block Grants given […]
Posted inLand Use
City’s share of VA hospital revealed: $107.4 million
To build the new Veterans Affairs hopsital, the city can take take money from a recovery loan program that’s no higher than the value of the old VA hopsital (above) – but that appraisal hasn’t been released publicly. New Orleans will kick in $107.4 million for the construction of a new Veterans Affairs hospital in […]
Posted inLand Use
City releases HUD report, invites public comments
The federal government gave New Orleans more than $6.5 million to build or repair affordable housing last year, resulting in 63 rental rehabs and 150 blighted property renovations, according to the draft of a federal report released for public review this week. Another 81 blighted properties were expropriated using the federal grant money, according to […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City makes $50k grant to support abstinence education
The city gave $50,000 in federal grant money in part to help support sexual abstinence education done by a Christian organization, according to a spending report presented Monday to members of the City Council. The grant also financed tutoring and day camps for more than 100 kids. The money came out of an $800,000 pool […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Less than 5% of certain recovery money spent, administration says
More than two years after New Orleans was given permission to begin drawing down federal recovery grants, the city has spent less than 5 percent of the $300 million in grant money appropriated in the city’s operating budget, the city’s chief technology officer Harrison Boyd told the City Council today. The amount totals $11 million, […]