To help New Orleans and other coastal communities get back on their feet following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) has initiated a multi-faceted Gulf Coast Revitalization Program (GCRP). Launched in 2006 under the banner of the AFL-CIO Investment Program, the Gulf Coast Revitalization Program is bringing union capital to address the urgent rebuilding needs of communities still coping with the effects of the 2005 storms and flooding. Combined investments of $700 million by the HIT and the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust over a seven-year period are expected to result in $1 billion of housing and economic development activity in the region. Projects currently in the planning stage represent thousands of jobs for those living in and returning to the region.
"Our own AFL-CIO Gulf Coast Revitalization Program is deep into $1 billion worth of strategies to produce new housing, fund economic development projects, create thousands of new jobs, train workers to fill those jobs and guarantee the right-of-return for all former public housing tenants."
- AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
Statement on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
The HIT has pledged $600 million over seven years to finance 5,000 to 10,000 units of affordable housing, increase homeownership opportunities, help finance the rehabilitation of damaged health care facilities and create good jobs for local residents. As partners in this effort, the HIT has assembled a coalition of national and local groups committed to affordable housing in the region and who represent a wide range of expertise on housing and community development.
A special additional focus of the program is on the development of affordable housing in communities such as Jackson, Mississippi, where there are pressing needs for homes affordable to working families.
In carrying out this initiative, the HIT will benefit from its alliance with the Gulf Coast Construction Careers Center, which was created by the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, to meet the demand for skilled workers in the region’s massive rebuilding efforts. Through links with the Careers Center, HIT-financed construction projects will offer local residents access to training and good union jobs. The Careers Center gives special emphasis to serving unemployed construction workers and community residents interested in jobs and careers in the building trades. Its first graduates completed pre-apprenticeship training in June 2007.
The Gulf Coast Revitalization Program is operating on site from an office on Poydras Street in the heart of the New Orleans business district. The office allows staff to directly coordinate efforts with the program’s many partners, including New Orleans city officials as well as labor, financial and community organizations.
The Gulf Coast Revitalization Program is another way the HIT is working to create value for the portfolio while addressing an unprecedented need for housing. The HIT intends to put investors’ capital prudently to work not only to seek competitive returns but also to aid in the recovery from one of the nation’s worst natural disasters.
