Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 12/18/98
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   65

Editors: Photo accompanies release
SLU CONDUCTS HOUSING NEEDS STUDY FOR UNITED WAY
     HAMMOND -- The Tangipahoa Area United Way is completing its review and
assessment of a parishwide housing student that focuses on affordable housing needs and
housing
problems within Tangipahoa Parish.
     The study sought to identify housing needs overlooked by the conventional housing
finance system.
     The non-profit United Way initiated a dialogue on the housing needs issue and turned to
local planning consultant John Dardis, interested citizens, and Southeastern Louisiana
University's Florida Parishes Social Science Research Center to gather basic parish housing
information and summarize housing resources and priorities.
     Southeastern students, supervised by Florida Parishes Social Science Research Center
director Bonnie Lewis and social work professor Peggy Munke, surveyed housing conditions in
Tangipahoa Parish communities and tabulated the results. 
     Overall, the survey showed that Roseland had the highest percentage of deteriorated and
dilapidated housing units, but that many neighborhoods throughout the parish also had high rates
of substandard housing, Dardis said.
     The survey also showed that the Village of Tickfaw had the highest percentage of mobile
home housing units (38.4 percent) among parish cities and that Hammond had the highest
percentage (25.6 percent) of apartment units.
     The Southeastern study also found that the rise in the average price of new single family
home construction in Tangipahoa Parish from $42,000 in 1986 to $90,000 today has in part
fueled the rapid rise in mobile home sales and that mobile home units as a percent of all housing 
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HOUSING STUDY   Add One
in the parish also doubled during this period.
     With an estimated 30 percent of the parish population living below the poverty level,
government subsidized housing also has greatly increased. The study showed that more than
1,400 units of rental housing throughout the parish are rental subsidized by the state or federal
government.
     The highest concentration, by percentage, of lower income households, the study
indicated, is in northwest Tangipahoa Parish between Independence and Kentwood.
     "The United Way proposed to initiate a strategy for addressing local needs for affordable
and safe housing in Tangipahoa Parish," Dardis said. The housing study recommends the
establishment of a community housing resource board to coordinate efforts to address special
housing needs. It also recommends increasing the availability of housing finance and credit
counseling and involvement of banks, and the targeting of investment areas in which special
housing resources could be concentrated.
                            - SLU -
     This press release is available on the World Wide Web:
      www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsf98.htm