Our mission is to transform unjust housing policies, discriminatory practices, and inequitable development schemes by engaging in strategies that create permanently affordable housing, advance tenant rights, expand housing security, and uphold equitable housing patterns and land use planning.
Since our July article, there have been drastic shifts in our city’s housing justice landscape. There are some great wins, some opportunities, and some threats. Get the info you need now! If there’s ever a time for you to take action, now is the time!
Right to Counsel: Fight Back to Protect Tenant Rights!
As a shock to everyone, we found out a few weeks ago that Right to Counsel was not funded for the remainder of 2026. How could a program earmarked in the City’s budget not have funding in the middle of the year? We’re not sure, but we do know that this is not what New Orleanians were promised when they were voting 11 months ago.
Thankfully, our City Council got the message and voted unanimously on August 20 to restore funding for the rest of 2026 with funds from the Habitat for Humanity debacle. City Councilmembers JP Morrell, Eugene Green, and Jason Hughes spoke in favor and in deep support of it!
Moving forward, we need to apply pressure on the mayor to ensure that funding is available. Not just $1.3 million, but it needs to be restored to its previous years of funding in order to ensure that we as residents are getting the comprehensive legal services in eviction court that’s needed.
Before Right to Counsel, only 6% of tenants were represented by an attorney in eviction proceedings and other housing issues in First and Second City Court. Now that number is nearly 50%! At Jane Place, we are currently wrapping up a research project examining why more tenants aren’t taking advantage of legal help and going to court. One clear fact is that the vast majority of tenants who DO go to eviction court receive some sort of favorable outcome. These include keeping evictions off of their records, getting more time to move out, or having evictions tossed out due to inaccuracies from landlords. Furthermore, we also see small “mom and pop” landlords getting help with mediation with tenants. A legal force for the people, by the people will always benefit working class people. So don’t forget: Regardless of the situation, go to your eviction court hearing! Good outcomes can occur!
Is it Groundhog Day?
Short-Term Rental Plaintiffs Lose Again
Once again, the very conservative Fifth Circuit Court has agreed with the people of New Orleans! Our residential short-term rental laws remain in effect and the City has the ability to demand platforms give them access to delist illegal listings. This connects to commercial short-term rentals because greedy, corporate short-term rental operators have constantly used the Takings Clause, due process, and the First and Fourth amendments of the Constitution as routes to sue the City. However, as Judge James E. Graves stated in the ruling, “The 2023 Ordinance may have frustrated the Hosts’ ambitions to operate short-term rentals. But it did not extinguish their ability to rent entirely—they can still rent long term,” Graves wrote, as reported by the Times-Picayune. “And if the Hosts expected the City never to regulate residentially zoned property, that expectation was unreasonable.”
We are using this energy to officially call for a ban of commercial short-term rentals. As the Convention Center embarks on the Omni project, why are we endangering locally-owned bed & breakfasts and small hotels managed by locals? When the nearly 1,000 room Omni opens up, we will see locals lose dollars at small hotels due to the glut of hotel rooms for tourists. So let’s cut to the chase and ban commercial short-term rentals now! Hearings around this issue will occur in late September through November. Final decisions might occur in December and January 2027, so please stay tuned for action steps!
Upcoming Fun Events, Workshops, and How to Connect
Wanna get involved? Get informed? Join us at these events!
New Orleans Renters’ Rights Assembly (and Renters’ Rights Legal Clinic)
Thursday 9/3
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
First Grace UMC (entrance through back parking lot)
3401 Canal St.
Weekly Tenant Rights Clinic
(every Tuesday and Wednesday)
3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
200 S. Broad St, Ste. 204
(parking lot behind the building, enter from Cleveland Ave.)
City Budget Hearing: Office of Community Development (Right to Counsel)
Thursday 10/8
9:30 a.m.
City Council Chambers
1300 Perdido St.
For more information, go to jpnsi.org or @janeplace_communitylandtrust on Instagram, email frank@jpnsi.org, or text UPDATES to (504) 517-5470 with your name and the event you have interest in.
This space is provided to Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative as a community service and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or editorial policies of ANTIGRAVITY.
