Former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros Challenges Public, Private Sectors to Collaborate and Invest in Rebuilding Homes in New Orleans

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With all eyes on New Orleans two years after Hurricane Katrina’s devastating impact on the region, CityView Executive Chairman and former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros has issued an innovative challenge to private companies and public entities to provide a solution which will bring desperately needed housing to the area. Cisneros calls for more private capital investments and proposes collaboration that is not completely dependent on government funding. The uniqueness of this model also relies on unifying local stakeholders, including elected officials, financial institutions, employers, non-profit organizations, builders, developers and neighborhoods to create homes more rapidly than the present building cycle.

“The theme moving forward from the second anniversary should be that the time has come for the private sector to step up, partner with public entities and invest in New Orleans. Although the commemoration brings heightened attention to the area, America must focus on the urgency for private capital investments during the coming weeks and months to put New Orleans residents back into homes,” Cisneros said. “We must think out of the box to do everything we can to move faster to build quality housing. Nowhere else is a collaborative effort between the private and public sectors more important than in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.”

Cisneros points to the success of a recent collaboration in the area to rehabilitate 320 severely wind-damaged homes known as the Gates on Manhattan. Leading the partnership are his company, CityView, a national urban housing investor, American Sunrise Communities, a national non-profit organization founded by Cisneros and CityView President Joel Shine, and Le Triomphe Property Group, a Louisiana-based real estate company led by third-generation developer Stewart Juneau. Both Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin are excited and supportive of this new model and solution to the area’s housing crisis.

Le Triomphe brings established relationships within the New Orleans region, which allows the team to quickly identify additional partners for the collaboration. The national team also includes homebuilder partner Our Castle Homes. The homeowner outreach, education and services side of the project is being coordinated by American Sunrise Communities and includes participation from the region’s Desire Community Housing Corporation, Chase Bank, Fannie Mae, Dryades Savings Bank and the Jefferson Parish Community Development Department.

“The rehabilitation of an existing dilapidated apartment complex along with creative construction and financing by the partnership has resulted in newly reconditioned two- and three-bedroom condominiums with a market value between $65,000 and $85,000,” Juneau said. “The development expertise of the partners converted these former tax-credit units into condominiums which are more affordable than many of the area’s rental units. Partnering with CityView and American Sunrise Communities was an opportunity to show that new homes for the area’s working families can be created with no government subsidy and at the speed of business.”

The partnership is currently reaching out to major public and private employers, faith-based organizations and other community groups to provide low-interest mortgages, subsidies, homeownership education services and case management assistance to ensure buyers become solid stakeholders in the community.

“This collaboration with private builders, developers, community lenders, public institutions, major employers and non-profit community groups provides quality housing within the reach of working families who are actually part of the rebuilding effort themselves,” said David Grunwald, president of American Sunrise Communities. “This effort to provide them with housing ensures stable communities and creates important incentives for maintaining public and private resources. This is all necessary to guarantee the long-term health, revitalization and survival of the region.”

CityView, a national housing investor based in Santa Monica, California, has invested more than $700 million to build homes for working families across the nation. The firm has partnered with homebuilders and developers in more than 30 communities across 12 states. The total value of the 6,000-plus homes CityView has financed is more than $2 billion and growing. CityView has additional offices in New York, Dallas, and San Antonio.

In 2006, Cisneros and Joel Shine, president of CityView, formed the national non-profit American Sunrise Communities. Their mission is to create a national model, leveraging public, private and non-profit resources to facilitate large-scale homeownership opportunities for low-income and minority families excluded from the housing market. In 2007, the organization added offices in Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Seattle and created partnerships with local stakeholders resulting in the potential development of over 5,000 affordable homes.