A recent report discusses the creation of a non-profit corporation to handle the scores of hurricane-damaged properties expected to be purchased by the state in the coming months and years through the Louisiana Recovery Authority's housing program.

Under Senate Bill 445 by Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport, which was sent to Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Sunday evening, a nonprofit corporation will be set up under the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency to receive the property and decide what to do with it.

The corporation will have a seven-member board appointed by the governor, with three members from the parishes most hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina and three from the parishes most affected by Hurricane Rita. As property is purchased by the state through the housing program from people who take the buyout or relocate options in that plan, the titles would be transferred to the nonprofit corporation, therefore shielding the state from environmental liability for the land, Jackson said.

The proposal gives the corporation wide authority to deal with the property, including whether to "finance, own, lease as lessee or lessor, sell, exchange, donate, or otherwise hold or transfer a property interest in housing stock damaged" by the storms.

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Louisiana Road Home Housing Corporation