Based on recommendations from HR&A Advisors in a study on the City of New Orleans’ Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning (MIZ) procured by the City Planning Commission, on October 1, 2026, the City Council drastically revised an affordable housing program that just didn’t work.

Developers of new mutli-family projects with more than 10 units, either apartments or condominiums, were required to set aside 5-10% of units as affordable, depending on the MIZ subdistrict, for a period of 99 years, or pay a fee of more than $300,000 per unit in lieu of doing so. This program, according to the study, produced no affordable housing units and dampened development of new multi-family projects in New Orleans.

The City Council recently reduced the fee to $10,000 per unit, which, although likely to produce no affordable housing units, will at least remove the damper on new multi-family development in the city.

You can read the entire study here.