City is hoping to relocate as many as 100 homes
The slow place of land acquisition for the planned federal veterans hospital in Mid-City has yielded a blessing of sorts for a historic preservation effort to spare dozens of old homes from the wrecking ball.
In September, Brad Ott protested as Mayor Mitch Landrieu touted the house-moving plan in Mid-City. The first of what was hoped to be 100 residential properties in the footprint of the new VA hospital was moved Sept. 10.Aides to Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the Builders of Hope program expects to move at least 81 houses to lots elsewhere in Mid-City by Dec. 1. That's less than the 100 structures targeted when the effort began in September, but it's well more than the 40 homes that had been moved by Oct. 31, the initial end date that Landrieu and Builders of Hope targeted. As of Wednesday, 55 houses had been taken elsewhere in Mid-City.
State officials, meanwhile, are clamoring for the $3.2 million program's conclusion so they can use any leftover money to move historic houses from the adjacent footprint slated for the successor to the Charity Hospital. Andy Kopplin, Landrieu's chief administrative officer, said the city, after several weeks of requests from the state, has agreed that the remaining balance will pay to move houses from the University Medical Center site.
The Landrieu administration, with the agreement of the state and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, set aside the $3.2 million from the $79 million in federal hurricane recovery grants that former Mayor Ray Nagin originally committed to the land acquisition and site preparation for VA medical complex.
The city agreed previously to turn over to the federal government a construction-ready parcel bound by South Galvez Street, Tulane Avenue, South Rocheblave Street and Canal Street by Nov. 30. Separately, the city enlisted the state to handle land acquisition, an ongoing task that contractors are carrying out both on the VA footprint and for the state's University Medical Center footprint across Galvez, stretching to South Claiborne Avenue.
The city's Nov. 30 deadline apparently won't be met in part because of the state contractors' slow pace acquiring the 194 individual properties in the VA footprint. But Scott Hutcheson, Landrieu's adviser on cultural economy issues, credited the delays with giving Builders of Hope and its subcontractors the additional four weeks to move houses.
"We still hope to do as many as 100 homes," Hutcheson said. "But that depends on a lot of factors."
Under the house-moving agreement, Builders of Hope and its subcontractors do not gain access to a property until the state contractors have closed on the real estate purchase or filed an expropriation and the occupants have left the property. Only then, Hutcheson said, can inspectors decide whether a home is structurally sound enough to be moved. Termite damage has already kept a handful of eligible homes from being moved, he said.
The program pays for houses to be moved and reset on the new foundation. One of several organizations, including Builders of Hope, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, the St. Bernard Project, Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative, then takes on the financial and logistical burden of renovating the residence and returning it to the housing market.
The goal, according to Builders of Hope, is for a property to return to the housing market no later than nine months after it is reset on a new foundation.
Jerry Jones, the state facilities director in charge of the UMC project, praised the Builders of Hope program and said he hopes to replicate it. But he insisted in a recent interview that the money should come from the Community Development Block Grants that the city obligated to the VA project. Jones noted that the state's agreement with the city to handle the real estate purchases calls for the city to transfer as much as $3.5 million to UMC site preparation if it is available.
The Landrieu administration was initially mum on his request, Jones said. He suggested the city was moving slowly in part to increase its leverage in extending wrangling over the state's design for the UMC campus. The Landrieu administration earlier delayed city action on the state's request to close streets in the footprint as the mayor presses Jones' office for changes. Landrieu has joined historic preservationists and other advocates in saying the suburban design is not compatible with the neighborhood or the city's master plan. Landrieu spokesman Ryan Berni said there has been no effort by the administration to use the balance of the Builders of Hope program as leverage. "Without a doubt, we're just trying to finish the part of the program we've committed to," he said.
Bill Barrow can be reached at bbarrow@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3452.