A process to sell abandoned properties bought by the Road Home hurricane recovery program has sold about a third of the 10,554 properties in the state’s possession, but officials say they will speed up sales. The Louisiana Land Trust was set up in 2006 as a temporary agency to hold on to storm-damaged properties sold to Road Home and pass them on to parishes for redevelopment. It says parishes have been slow to find buyers.
But the Louisiana Land Trust is running out of money—in part because it has to maintain and secure the lots in its custody, The Times-Picayune reported today. Trust spokeswoman GeGe Roulaine says the agency expects to spend $72 million on property upkeep by the end of the year. At the slow pace that St. Bernard and Orleans parishes are transferring and selling lots, it could take several more years to get them all off the trust’s books, says Don Vallee, a land trust board member. Estimating at current cost levels, the agency has enough money to run for about another year, Vallee says. Roulaine says the trust is spending about $100 per property each month. The trust pays to cut grass, to clean up trash and to provide security. Mike Taylor, the executive director of the land trust, says he wants to make it less dependent on St. Bernard Parish and the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to dispose of properties.
