Affordable Housing Spearheads Revitalization of Shreveport Neighborhood

The four phases of Bayou Grande will add more than 300 units of affordable and market-rate housing to a long-neglected neighborhood near downtown Shreveport, Louisiana, helping revitalize the area in line with the city's Choice Neighborhood transformation plan. Photo credit: ITEX

In Shreveport, Louisiana, the city's Choice Neighborhood Initiative is supporting the transformation of under-resourced neighborhoods through the creation of new affordable housing, retail space, and public parks. For one of the plan's two housing "nodes," the city is partnering with ITEX Development to create the four-phase Bayou Grande development, which will consist of hundreds of new affordable and market-rate rental units near the city's downtown, helping to transform a once thriving neighborhood that suffered from sustained outmigration and disinvestment. The third phase, with 122 units, opened in Summer 2024. The overall initiative was supported through HUD's Choice Neighborhoods planning program, which seeks to transform struggling neighborhoods by leveraging public and private funding to improve distressed public or HUD-assisted housing, neighborhood amenities, and social outcomes for area residents.

The Heritage at Bayou Grande

When completed, Bayou Grande will feature a total of 300 housing units and 5,000 square feet of retail space. The project's first two phases opened in summer 2022. Collectively named The Heritage at Bayou Grande, each of these initial phases consists of 68 units, including 10 market-rate units and 58 affordable units, 41 of which are supported by project-based vouchers for residents. The project's third phase opened in the summer of 2024 with 122 units, including 30 market-rate units, 34 unsubsidized affordable units, and 58 units with project-based vouchers. The final phase of Bayou Grande will be a 70-unit building reserved for seniors. Amenities at Bayou Grande include a swimming pool, community room, and fitness center. Residents also have access to supportive services. Although the financing mix for each phase of Bayou Grande varied, major funding sources included low-income housing tax credits, Choice Neighborhood Implementation grant funding, and community development block grant funds from the Louisiana Housing Corporation (table 1).

Table 1: Bayou Grande financing sources

	Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3 (Mixed use)	Phase 4 (Senior)
First lien mortgage	$3,700,000	$3,500,000	$6,300,000	$3,400,000
Low-income housing tax credit equity	6,748,650	6,748,650	8,290,245	13,047,390
Choice Neighborhood Implementation funds	3,000,000	3,500,000	8,912,142	2,500,000
Louisiana Housing Corporation community development block grant funds			5,818,601
Shreveport Home Mortgage Authority		500,000
HOME Investment Partnerships funds (City of Shreveport)			1,000,000
Total:	$13,448,650	$14,248,650	$30,320,988	$18,947,390

Transforming a Neighborhood

In the early 20th century, the neighborhood surrounding Bayou Grande was known as St. Paul's Bottoms, home to Shreveport's red light district. Ongoing decline and disinvestment over the past several decades combined with automobile-driven suburbanization drove new development away from the historic and dense downtown and significantly depopulated the neighborhood, removing many properties from the tax rolls, reports Will Moyers, vice president at ITEX. This decline stands in stark contrast to the general growth of the Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan statistical area, leaving the neighborhood with income and educational attainment levels far below Shreveport's average levels. The city's Choice Neighborhood transformation plan, built with significant community engagement, consists of three parts: a "people transformation strategy" to address education, workforce development, and health and human services; a "neighborhood transformation strategy" to target investment in key areas that will improve neighborhood amenities and safety; and a "housing transformation strategy" to leverage public, nonprofit, and private housing development to achieve permanent affordability and sustainability objectives while ensuring that the newly constructed buildings contribute to the historic context of the area.

Plans for the first two phases of Bayou Grande were already underway when Shreveport secured Choice Neighborhood Implementation funding. Moyers reports that for those phases, the additional funding meant improved design features that better tied Bayou Grande to the nearby downtown area, in line with the overall neighborhood redevelopment strategy; allowed for a well-equipped fitness center that helps fulfill an aspect of the people strategy; upgraded interior unit finishes; and added a swimming pool to the design. Sustained disinvestment in the neighborhood also meant that ITEX needed to upgrade the infrastructure around the Bayou Grande site, including improving the water and sewer systems and streets. Bayou Grande will house the state's first EnVision Center, providing neighborhood residents with coordinated supportive services, training programs, and counseling.

By investing in affordable, large-scale redevelopment of a neighborhood within walking distance of the city's downtown, Shreveport and ITEX hope to catalyze a virtuous cycle of increased private development in line with the city's neighborhood transformation plan. Moyers reports that downtown Shreveport has seen significant redevelopment activity beyond Bayou Grande, including the adaptive reuse of historic buildings as rental or condominium apartments or commercial office space.