Housing analysis looks at affordable options for Tremé

A neighborhood analysis of housing and health-related issues by Tulane University School of Architecture students and staff at the Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design will be used to analyze housing strategies and understand the impacts of potential regulatory changes in Tremé.

Led by Small Center project manager Nick Jenisch, the team used door-to-door surveys, regulatory research and layered mapping to collect and analyze data on access to affordable housing and resources that support public health, including use of parks, public spaces and healthcare facilities. Qualitative surveying was integrated to understand challenges residents face in using local facilities.

“Resident perceptions are what give insight into true accessibility, not just looking at a map to determine whether someone should be able to walk to a certain park,” said Jenisch.

“Resident perceptions are what give insight into true accessibility.”

Nick Jenisch

Building on the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance’s finding of the need for more than 33,000 affordable housing units by 2025, the Small Center’s Tremé research examines how this citywide issue could be addressed on a neighborhood level.

“We wanted to see what that would look like within a neighborhood, including new houses on vacant lots, how zoning could accommodate increased density around transit stops, and also how to represent density in a way that is contextually and historically appropriate,” said Jenisch.

The project was conducted in partnership with the Greater Tremé Consortium, a community organization working to preserve neighborhood culture. Findings will inform the consortium’s future advocacy efforts and serve as a model for neighborhood analysis in New Orleans and beyond.

Small Center projects are selected by jury from a yearly request for proposals from community groups and are executed in partnership with the selected organizations and their stakeholders. This project built on previous work with GNOHA and the Small Center’s ongoing relationship with the Greater Tremé Consortium and was made possible by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and Tulane University Partnership for Healthcare Innovation.

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