Sitting empty, unwanted

When the Road Home Program gave residents the option to give up their property after Hurricane Rita, at least 13 property owners in Iberia Parish threw in the towel and traded their land for money from the state.

At least eight of the state-owned properties throughout the parish have abandoned homes atop them and have been sitting empty in neighborhoods for more than three years. Some of those homes could be demolished in the coming months.

Louisiana Land Trust, the nonprofit handling the properties, has offered the properties to the parish, but parish officials say the parish does not have much use for them because they are in low-lying areas where many homes were destroyed.

“We don’t necessarily want those properties because it’s a liability to us to maintain,” said Assistant District Attorney Eric Duplantis, the Parish Council’s legal adviser. “We want the state to sell it to another individual if they want them.”

GeGe Roulaine, spokeswoman for Louisiana Land Trust, said the state has acquired more than 9,000 properties statewide, and would eventually like for all the properties to be back in the hands of the parish.

“Be it parish-owned, or through homeowners and businesses, we want all properties to go back,” said Roulaine. “But because of the small number of properties in your parish, some of the parishes don’t feel it’s cost-effective for them to take them on and then disburse them. We’re working to see how to get properties in the hands of other individuals.”

Through the Road Home program, residents were given the options of receiving grant money to rebuild their home, selling the property to the state and moving elsewhere within the state or selling the property and moving out of the state, Roulaine said.

“With each phase you got a different amount of money, and there were many who just decided not to rebuild,” Roulaine said. She said demolition plans are in the works, but homes will only be demolished if it is determined that at least 51 percent of the home is damaged.

“We will have to go in and see which homes are salvageable,” Roulaine said. “There are a lot of possibilities there for individuals to purchase.”

In areas like Orleans and St. Bernard parishes, where the state acquired thousands of properties, Roulaine said the parishes have implemented “lot next door” programs, which give residents who live next door to the property an opportunity to expand their property line by buying the property at fair market value.

“Essentially, we (the parish) have a responsible land owner who can do something with the properties,” said Duplantis. “The state is taking care of the properties, and we don’t want it because there’s nothing we can do with it. The state can use it for green space or something like that.”