Hey y’all! We’re the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative (Jane Place for short!). We’re a community land trust and housing rights organization that builds permanently affordable housing, and we conduct advocacy, education, research, and community organizing around housing justice issues. Each month we’ll talk about current topics and give updates.
Rental Assistance
The City’s Office of Community Development closed its rental assistance program without notice in June. This was a shock to many, including our very own City councilmembers. This program has its origins in post-pandemic federal funding designed to prevent displacement and to mitigate the economic chaos impacting renters and landlords. This program has assisted 28,000 households to pay overdue rent and stay in their homes since 2021.
The New Orleans Renters’ Rights Assembly, an organization of working-class and middle-class renters, unhoused folks, and mortgage-burdened homeowners, is fighting back and asking folks to sign their petition to reinstate rental assistance. Find the petition and upcoming action steps via their Instagram (@nolarentersrightsassembly). They are encouraging all residents to show up for City Council’s Quality of Life Committee meeting at City Hall on Monday, September 9 at 1 p.m. to speak in support of a permanent rental assistance fund.
Evictions and Right to Counsel
We’re currently in the doldrums of summer, and evictions are rising. We’ve long observed that evictions peak when tourist season ends. If you are facing an eviction in Orleans Parish, you have access to free legal representation regardless of your income and citizenship status! Please, please GO TO YOUR COURT DATE! We can’t stress this enough: 97% of tenants who show up get either:
- A Consent Agreement (prevents an eviction from hitting your record)
- Their eviction tossed out, or
- More time to move out.
Tenants who DON’T show up at eviction court often get a 24-hour notice to leave their house. This is Louisiana, this is real, this is the law. Fight back by becoming educated on YOUR rights! Your right to an attorney in eviction court is provided by the Right to Counsel program, which was passed by City Council in 2021. A coalition of organizations and tenants led by Jane Place and Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center won this program by mobilizing to address the inequities that plague the eviction process: Each year, around 85% of households in eviction court are Black. And prior to Right to Counsel, fewer than one in 16 tenants had an attorney to represent them in eviction court.
So if you are facing an eviction, call Southeast Louisiana Legal Services at 504-529-1000, extension 223. LEAVE A VOICEMAIL! They will call you back. If you’re having other housing issues, then you can call Jane Place’s Citywide Renters Rights Hotline at 504-539-4504 (for English, press 7 / Para español, oprima 6). Lastly, we organize a renters’ rights clinic on the first Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. at the New Orleans Renters’ Rights Assembly (location: First Grace UMC, 3401 Canal St., enter through the back parking lot). The next one is Thursday, September 5!
Your Right to Repairs: The Healthy Homes Ordinance
Did you know that our City passed a comprehensive habitability ordinance in 2022? The resulting program, known as Healthy Homes, protects renters in situations where their landlords are not making necessary repairs.
If you have habitability issues in your home (mold, leaks, non-working air conditioning, etc.) that your landlord has not addressed, you may file a complaint by calling 311 or going online to nola311.org. These issues, if neglected by your landlord, are considered violations of the City’s maintenance code. If you’re not sure if your issue is a violation, search for the “New Orleans Healthy Homes Minimum Rental Standards” online.
The ordinance includes an anti-retaliation measure, which means your landlord cannot evict you for asking for or reporting needed repairs (including if you’re a month-to-month renter). As always: Take photos of the issues and document your communications with your landlord. Gone are the old days of slumlord-ism in Orleans Parish. You have rights, you have protections now!
Organizing
A lot has happened over the last few years in Orleans Parish due to the organizing and coalition work Jane Place has birthed. Currently, we are helping to organize tenant unions all over the city. If you live in an apartment complex with four units or more, or if you rent from a slumlord who owns multiple properties, we want to equip you with the skills and knowledge to organize a tenant union. From Downtown to Uptown, the East to Algiers, Chalmette to Kenner, tenants are rising up and demanding respect and quality housing. If you want to speak with one of our community organizers, see the sidebar for ways to connect.
Upcoming Fun Events, Workshops, and How to Connect
Wanna get involved? Learn about your rights? Come to any of the events below. (Note: not all events are being organized or facilitated by Jane Place. We assume NO responsibility for events not explicitly organized or facilitated by us.)
New Orleans Renters’ Rights Assembly (and Renters’ Rights Clinic)
Thursday 9/5 | 6 p.m.
First Grace UMC (entrance through back parking lot)
3401 Canal St. 70119
Speak Up to Restart the City Rental Assistance Program
(City Council’s Quality of Life Housing Trust Fund Discussion)
Monday 9/9 | 1-3 p.m.
City Hall City Council’s Chambers
1300 Perdido St. 70112
Know Your Rights, Know Your Power: Renters’ Rights Workshop
Saturday 9/14 | 2-4 p.m.
Norman Mayer Library
3001 Gentilly Blvd. 70122
Housing Justice Fall Horror Film Series
The People Under the Stairs
Tuesday 9/17 | 6-8:30 p.m.
Parish Hall
2533 Columbus St. 70119
For more information, go to jpnsi.org, email frank@jpnsi.org, or text UPDATES to 504-517-5470 with your name and the event you have interest in.
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.
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.
