Public housing authorities are changing the way they finance, develop and manage their communities, and in the years to come those communities will look very different than they do today.
Baton Rouge has thus far been slow to adapt to these changes, but its public housing authority is getting on board and its new CEO, J. Wesley Daniels, is leading the charge.
Armed with a fresh strategic plan and marching orders from a housing authority board of directors that, itself, comprises mostly new members, Daniels is overseeing the development of more than 2,500 new housing units over the next decade, 300 of which will be constructed in the next two years. Many of the complexes will be less dense than traditional public housing developments and visually more appealing.
More significantly, they’ll be developed through public-private partnerships and, in some cases, like the Cypress River Lofts, blend market rate with affordable units. What’s more, they’ll replace aging housing stock, addressing a $40 million backlog of deferred maintenance that the housing authority cannot afford to tackle.
It’s an ambitious undertaking that won’t be nearly as easy as it sounds on paper, and it won’t solve all the problems that exist in the public housing sector. But Daniels says it’s a start that is long overdue.
Read the full Business Report feature about how Daniels is working to reshape public housing in Baton Rouge. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
