Sep 27, 2019
Grassroots Spotlight - Andreanecia Morris, Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance
Grassroots Leader Spotlights highlight the work of activist leaders across the country who are doing meaningful and innovative work to strengthen their communities. To read more about other leaders, scroll to the bottom of this article to browse profiles from around the country.
Meet Andreanecia of The Greater New Orleans Housing Coalition (September 2019)
Can you tell us a bit about your organization? What is Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance’s mission?
The Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance’s (GNOHA) mission is to collaborate and support member efforts to build affordable housing for the residents of the Greater New Orleans area in an ethical and efficient manner. Now, GNOHA is a collaborative of home builders and community development organization advocating for the preservation and production of affordable housing. In 2014, GNOHA was chosen to manage the initial startup of HousingNOLA. Assisted by fair housing advocates, developers and City officials and in partnership with civic, neighborhood, business, and philanthropic leaders, New Orleans now has its first-ever 10-Year Strategy and Implementation Plan for housing.
What is your role at GNOHA?
I am the President and Chair.
Any recent successes you’d like to share?
The recent legislative session was an overall disappointment. But the state legislature did approve a constitutional amendment to provide tax relief for homeowners and small landlords in New Orleans. As a constitutional amendment it will have to be voted on statewide and it’s on the same ballot as the upcoming Governor’s race.
Also, last year, HousingNOLA was awarded a $1.1 million grant from JP Morgan Chase to create a pilot program around affordable housing opportunities. Launched this summer, Own the Crescent will be aligning financial partners, developers, contractors and landlords to increase affordable housing for sale and rent in the Claiborne Corridor.
Any other upcoming projects and events you can share?
We’re supporting the creation of other regional housing alliances so we can build out a statewide network that can set policy locally and come together to advocate statewide. We’re launching our 2019 ‘Put Housing First’ Campaign and we’re having our second march in October. We’re also releasing candidate scorecards for the upcoming elections.
Right! A good reminder that Louisiana has statewide 2019 Elections! Can you tell us more about your voter education work?
GNOHA will be conducting candidate interviews for the New Orleans legislative races and statewide races like Governor, Lt. Governor and Treasurer. Once those interviews are completed we’ll be issuing our #PutHousingFirst Scorecard and sending it out to our supporters.
What’s on the horizon for GNOHA? For you as a community leader?
This fall marks the fifth anniversary of the HousingNOLA process and next year we will release our fifth HousingNOLA Report Card. We have to be even more committed to our mission and we are making some headway around our organizing efforts—our elected officials are somewhat afraid of us.
Anyone your organization is looking to connect with? Resources you need?
Any help we can get elevating our issues on social media would be helpful. We’ve got two ballot initiatives, one statewide that we’d like to see passed and one New Orleans referendum that we want to kill.
How can folks get in touch with you?
Website
Put Housing First
GNOHA Facebook
GNOHA Twitter
Find Andreanecia on Facebook
Find Andreanecia on Twitter
Find Andreanecia on Instagram
Want to learn more? Read other profiles!
Meet Kathryn from Collective Agency (June 2019)
Meet Joe from Wolf-PAC (April 2019)
Meet Ilona of Movement School (April 2019)
Meet Anna and Michelle from Red2Blue (March 2019)
Meet Shabd from Let NY Vote (March 2019)
Meet Sara from Downtown Women for Change (Feb 2019)