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Round 1 Wrap Up Report

Small Rental Property Program Round 1 Wrap-Up
May 21, 2007

Overview of Round 1

The State awarded more than $202 million in federal funds to 2,693 applications in Round 1 of the Small Rental Property program. The average award is approximately $75,000. 

The awards will help restore more than 5,000 rental units in 13 parishes. Of those, more than 4,000 units will be rented at affordable rates for low- to moderate-income working families. The other units will be home to owner-occupants (who live on the same property as their rental units) and market rate tenants in mixed-income buildings.

The Program accepted applications for Round 1 from January 29 to March 15, 2007.  There was also a 5% funding set-aside for non-profits that focus on creating “Permanent Supportive Housing” (PSH) for people with special needs.  For non-profits the Round opened later and closed on March 22nd.

 

Awards for Round 1

Parish Awards
The number of awards in each parish closely matches the level of damage each parish sustained in the hurricanes. The chart below shows the distribution of awards.

The awards will help increase the amount of affordable housing available for renters in each hurricane-impacted parish.  The chart below shows the number of awards made in each parish, along with the number of affordable rental units the awards will make possible, and the total dollar amount awarded.

 

Interest in the Program was strong across all of the affected parishes.  View a map of southern Louisiana (PDF/517k) showing the distribution of awards across participating parishes.

The greatest demand came from heavily damaged parishes such as Orleans and St. Bernard.  In some of the smaller parishes, the number of applications was low enough that the Program was able to award all of them before the allocation for that parish was used up.

• Overall, all parishes were awarded funding at or near the amount of their target allocation.
• The State has made changes in Round 2 in order to attract a sufficient volume of quality applications from all parishes, and to enable the Program to spend the full Round 2 allocation. 
• In particular, for Round 2 the State will be accepting applications from mid-size owners and owners of partially occupied dwellings.

 

Awards by Applicant Type
Of the 2,693 awarded applications, nearly 10% (237) were owner-occupants of three-and four-unit properties. Non-profit organizations submitted about 3% (80) of the awarded applications. Approximately 88% (2,376) of awards were made to applicants from a “general pool” of small owners of rental properties.

 

Awards by Race and Ethnicity
The chart below shows the awarded applications grouped by the race of the primary applicant.  View the same chart for all applications submitted.

 

Awards in New Orleans
Nearly 70% of the awards went to applicants in New Orleans.  The awards are spread across a range of different neighborhoods.  View a map showing the distribution of awarded applications throughout the city. (PDF/359k)

 

Application Process
The applications that received awards scored higher compared to the other applications in the same parish that were competing for the same funds.

• Owner occupants of three and four-unit properties were given top priority.
• Non-profits, who were required to provide extended affordability, competed for a funding set-aside of 5%.
• All other applications were ranked based on responses to scoring questions on the application.

 

The table below shows the minimum winning scores in all 13 parishes.

All applicants are required to demonstrate that they merited the scoring points they received for the questions they answered on the application.  In some cases, applicants’ responses will also be verified against a separate data source.

 

Applications Not Awarded in Round 1

• The total number of applications received (the “applicant pool”) was over 6,700. View the application pool by parish and race/ethnicity.
• Of these, approximately 1,400 did not meet the basic eligibility requirements of the Program.  For example, some applicants acknowledged that their property was larger than 4 units, while others demonstrated that they had purchased the property after the storms.
• The program is mailing “Deferral Letters” to applicants that were not selected for Round 1 but may be eligible for future Rounds.
• These applicants are strongly encouraged to reapply in future Rounds because the scoring rules, and the properties in the competition, will be different in every Round.
• Applicants who did not meet the program’s basic requirements will receive a “Denial” letter.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Round 2
The Small Rental Property Program’s second Round will open at the end of May or early June and will accept applications for 30 days.  Round 2 will be open to:

• Eligible owners that did not apply in Round 1.
• Eligible owners that applied in Round 1 but were deferred because their score was not high enough to be awarded.
• Applicants who received a Conditional Award in Round 1 but were then unable to verify the statements from their application.   
• Eligible owners who received a Conditional Award in Round 1 but elected to withdraw their award and re-apply.  For example, some owners may determine that they are not able to reconstruct their building to be handicapped accessible, as they had promised to do.  These owners may choose to withdraw from Round 1 and reapply in Round 2 without promising to provide a handicapped accessible dwelling.

Round 2 rules are being finalized by the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) and the Office of Community Development (OCD).  Details on eligibility will be announced later this month.