The dorm rooms will be well branded

The City Council approved Wisznia's bowling alley barracks thing. That's bad enough. What's worse is we find Councilman Jay Banks, as well as one housing advocacy group willing to go along with the pretense that $1400 for a dorm room* is anything other than an insult. 

Andreanecia Morris, executive director of the advocacy group HousingNola, has supported the project since its inception. She said that while the housing need in New Orleans is most acute among its poorest residents, rising housing costs also have hit professions such as teachers, hospitality workers and paralegals.

"We need those people's needs met, too," she said, noting that her support for Two Saints is contingent on it actually serving those people.

Ha ha, no. No this isn't going to help any of those people. But hey thanks for your "contingent" support.  I'm sure they'll feel real bad if you have to withdraw it. 

*A last minute proviso "sets aside" 20 of the 218 dorm rooms at $700. But as Cashauna Hill implies here, we all know that doesn't serve any purpose beyond tokenism.

The Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center had opposed the development, with Executive Director Cashauna Hill writing to City Council members to say projects like Two Saints risked being empty gestures by developers while doing little to address the city's lack of affordable housing.

"In a moment when nearly everyone agrees that New Orleans is in the midst of an affordability crisis, it is important to be precise about 'affordability,' so that the word doesn't become a branding tool devoid of meaning," Hill wrote.