{"id":2198766,"date":"2025-12-14T17:43:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T17:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2198766"},"modified":"2025-12-14T17:43:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T17:43:33","slug":"nola-habitat-addresses-sale-of-musicians-village-rentals-music-gambit-weekly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/nola-habitat-addresses-sale-of-musicians-village-rentals-music-gambit-weekly\/","title":{"rendered":"NOLA Habitat addresses sale of Musicians’ Village rentals | Music | Gambit Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Habitat for Humanity homes in Musicians’ Village in 2024.<\/p>\n

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\n Photo by Brett Duke \/ The Times-Picayune<\/span>
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New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity leaders say the organization sold its Musicians\u2019 Village rental properties culture bearers had been renting at a reduced rate because the nonprofit couldn\u2019t afford major maintenance upgrades on its rentals.<\/p>\n

The four houses, or eight rental units, were part of a larger $1.7 million sale<\/a> of 32 properties across the city by the New Orleans independent affiliate of Habitat to Sam Madi of Metairie-based Stable Housing LLC. Twenty of the units were doubles, totaling 52 total rental units.<\/p>\n

Homeowners in Musicians\u2019 Village are not affected by the sale.<\/p>\n

Madi recently sent letters to village renters informing them that their rents would in some cases triple from between $300 to $400 a month to between $1,100 to $1,200, with hikes kicking in Jan. 1 and full increases taking effect in March.<\/p>\n

NOAHH Executive Director Marguerite Oestreicher said Habitat was \u201cdeeply subsidizing\u201d the eight rental units in Musicians\u2019 Village through its general operating fund. She also said she was aware Madi would be raising the rents because \u201cthat is not a viable business model for a for-profit business.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Madi told Habitat leaders he planned to introduce himself to tenants and let them know rents would be increasing and that he was willing to work with them. But no safeguards were put into place by Habitat to protect the current Musicians\u2019 Village tenants nor any other tenants.<\/p>\n

“He operates in the space of affordable rental, and he’s like, \u2018No, we understand, and we’ll work with people, and we’ll figure out terms that can work for them,\u2019\u201d Oestreicher said. \u201cSo everybody moved forward with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oestreicher said the sale of the rentals was part of a decision the New Orleans affiliate made to stop operating rentals and put their resources toward building affordable fortified homes meant for ownership.<\/p>\n

Habitat doesn\u2019t normally rent property at all and instead builds homes occupants then buy at affordable rates. But following Hurricane Katrina, housing was so scarce the group decided to operate some rentals.<\/p>\n

She said Habitat agreed to sell the properties to Madi at a reduced rate because of their age, the significant work they need, the neighborhoods they are in and the convenience of bundling the sale versus individually financing them.<\/p>\n

Musicians\u2019 Village renters, many of whom are elderly and living on fixed incomes, say the rent increases are unaffordable. It appears at least some are weighing other options, whether it\u2019s looking for another rental or moving in with a family member.<\/p>\n

Though most of the properties sold are not in Musicians\u2019 Village, the village properties are home to culture bearers like Lolet Boutte and the daughter of Voudou priestess Mama Lola.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s caught the attention of the New Orleans City Council, with members all issuing statements on the rent increases Dec. 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s deeply disappointing to now see Habitat turning around and selling units without any affordability safeguards, while rents climb for the very residents we stepped in to protect,\u201d said Mayor-elect and Council Vice President Helena Moreno.<\/p>\n

Council Member Eugene Green, whose District D includes Musicians\u2019 Village, announced he\u2019d be holding a community meeting on the sale of the rental properties on Thursday, Dec. 18 at 1:30 p.m. at St. Josephine Bakhita Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s inviting residents of Musicians’ Village, Habitat for Humanity, new owner Sam Madi of Stable Housing LLC, the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and the city\u2019s Office of Community Development.<\/p>\n

District B Council Member Lesli Harris, who often works on housing issues, sent a letter to Habitat on Dec. 12 requesting more information on the sale and impacts on renters.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy intent is to ensure that residents are protected, that the mission of Musicians\u2019 Village remains intact, and that our city continues to work in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to expand and preserve affordable homeownership,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n\n

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Musicians\u2019 Village was built in the 9th Ward to give artists an affordable place to live.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Habitat for Humanity homes in Musicians’ Village in 2024. Photo by Brett Duke \/ The Times-Picayune New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity leaders say the organization sold its Musicians\u2019 Village rental properties culture bearers had been renting at a reduced rate because the nonprofit couldn\u2019t afford major maintenance upgrades on its rentals. The four houses, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2198767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2198766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/NOLA-Habitat-addresses-sale-of-Musicians-Village-rentals-Music.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2198766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2198768,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198766\/revisions\/2198768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2198767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2198766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2198766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2198766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}