Originally published by BR Pround
Affordable housing is getting harder to find, and that has the East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority concerned. Experts say not enough houses are being built. Meanwhile, with higher interest rates, fewer people are buying and selling homes.
“You’ll probably pay two to three hundred more in your monthly mortgage for the same house. Just because of the rise in interest rates. So yeah, it’s pushing the affordable rate out the window,” said Leo Desselle, Pennant Real Estate owner.
It’s putting a strain on residents looking for affordable housing. East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority CEO J. Wesley Daniels, Jr. said people are staying in assisted housing for longer than usual so those apartments can’t be turned over to help new applicants as quickly.
“It has taken a segment and a group of families and made housing unaffordable because of the increase in mortgage rates because of that. Now they have to continue to live in multifamily housing or rental housing,” said Daniels.
Some renters have been waiting months, some years, for help from the East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority.
“And by like a year to two years before we get to where we need to be, you know, is everything you need, is a good thing to have when you got over two or three children,” explained Robert Bradley, a Baton Rouge resident.
