Five N.O.-area Housing Grants Awarded

By Advocate Staff, The New Orleans Advocate on Aug. 02, 2104

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas has awarded more than $1.3 million in Affordable Housing Program grants for five projects in the New Orleans area totaling 210 housing units.

Four of the projects are in New Orleans and one in Mandeville.

Another $530,000 is going to projects in Lake Charles, Alexandria and Ruston for 77 housing units.

The grants, made in partnership with Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas member financial institutions, are among $9.8 million being awarded to 33 projects, primarily within the bank’s five-state district.

FHLB Dallas returns 10 percent of its profits each year to the communities served by its member institutions in the form of AHP grants.

In New Orleans, the member institutions, project sponsor and grants are:

First NBC Bank, Hotel Hope, $100,000 for 14 rental units.

First NBC Bank, Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, $400,000 for 40 rental units.

Hope Federal Credit Union, Iris Development, $500,000 for 117 rental units.

Whitney Bank, Greater New Orleans Teen Challenge Inc., $304,000 for 32 rental units.

The Mandeville grant is through Home Bank and Habitat for Humanity St. Tammany West, $45,500 for seven ownership units.

The other grants in the state are $420,000 for 61 rental units in Ruston; $16,000 for two ownership units and $32,000 for four ownership units in Lake Charles; and $70,000 for 10 ownership units in Alexandria.

“FHLB Dallas has been providing AHP grants through our member institutions for more than 20 years,” said FHLB Dallas President and CEO Sanjay Bhasin. “There is a great demand for affordable housing within our bank’s five-state district and we are committed to helping meet this need.”

The 2014 grants will result in the creation or rehabilitation of 1,586 housing units within FHLB Dallas’ district of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas, as well as a few states outside FHLB Dallas’ district, in which its members do business.

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