The rent is too damn high

Obviously the problem here is we don't give landlords enough say on housing policy.

The proposal that succeeded — introduced by Rep. Nick Lorusso, R-New Orleans, and not backed by Landrieu — increases the board’s membership from seven to eight, adding a landlord. The change was applauded by the New Orleans Landlord Association, which has complained that the panel lacks landlord representation.

But a fair housing advocacy group said the measure is inadequate because it doesn’t also include a seat for one of the 18,000 Section 8 tenants who receive housing vouchers from HANO.

The Section 8 program, officially called the housing choice voucher program, is the federal government’s program for assisting low-income families, the elderly and the disabled to afford housing in the private market. They receive vouchers to pay for privately-owned apartments.

The 18,000 tenants amount to “a quarter of all renters in the city of New Orleans,” said Monika Gerhart-Hambrick, policy director for the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. “We’re talking about a huge percentage of the city’s rental population.”

Seems fair.