For years, programs for public housing residents in New Orleans, like in many U.S. cities, have relied entirely on funding from the federal government. But with public housing authorities’ funding now at risk of cuts under the Trump administration, New Orleans’ public housing agency is pursuing private funding and partnerships to provide wraparound services for residents.
The agency hopes to raise between $2 million and $5 million annually to support expanded resident self-sufficiency programs through a newly launched foundation, said Marjorianna Willman, who took over as director of the Housing Authority of New Orleans in January.
The launch of the NOLA SEEDS Foundation, which was granted federal tax-exempt status earlier this month, comes as Willman works to make good on her promise to turn the page on years of management woes at the agency and to expand services for the 23,000 low-income families housed by HANO, even as federal funding challenges loom.
Willman said that HANO’s roughly $260 million annual allocation from the Department of Housing and Urban Development hasn’t been impacted by federal policy changes so far. But President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 budget would cut billions of dollars in rental subsidies and nearly $200 million for resident self-sufficiency programs nationally, among other cuts. Separately, a rule change announced by HUD this month is threatening the housing of more than 2,600 formerly homeless people in Orleans and Jefferson parishes.
The funds Willman hopes to raise would not be used for subsidizing rents but for supporting programs that connect HANO residents to employment, education, and homeownership opportunities.
“It is important that we look at other ways to diversify our revenue” to weather any funding changes at the state or federal level, Willman said, adding that she wants to “look at HANO like a business, like a corporation.”
The move also comes as the Trump administration has floated rule changes that would allow local housing authorities and landlords to impose work requirements for people receiving housing assistance and limit housing assistance to as little as two years, according to reporting by ProPublica.
Willman hopes that the foundation will support 25% of the agency’s annual funding for client services programs within a couple years and will ultimately increase that share to half. The total budget for client services at HANO is currently $1.8 million.
Willman said she also hopes to expand partnerships with businesses that can provide services to residents and universities that can offer educational opportunities.
The new foundation will be overseen by Travis Chase, who was appointed as the agency’s director of philanthropy and business development in October.
While Willman believes this to be the first time that HANO has turned to philanthropy to raise programmatic funds in years, she said that the move follows the lead of other housing authorities across the country.
“I think we may be a little behind the ball, but since I’ve been here we have been moving at lightning speed,” said Willman, who has criticized the agency’s management under her predecessor, Evette Hester, who resigned in 2024 after months of scrutiny.
HANO was also recently awarded a $1 million grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas to upgrade roofs on 465 rental units across its properties to the fortified standard.
At the same time as the agency is seeking new revenue sources, Willman said she is also working to cut back on administrative costs.
“We are becoming a leaner organization,” said Willman. “We have been very limited in backfilling positions … because we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Percy Manson, president of the HANO Board of Commissioners, applauded Willman’s efforts to diversify HANO’s revenues and respond to residents’ concerns.
“She’s more involved day to day,” Manson said he’s heard from residents. “I think she’s headed in the right direction.”
Andreanecia Morris, director of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance, said that she supports the effort to raise private funds but that HANO should focus on collaborating with other organizations to provide services.
“You’re not going to grow the pie if you just increase competition, what you have to do is increase collaboration,” said Morris.
Willman said that she would “evaluate every opportunity.”
“I absolutely support collaboration,” she said.
Morris, who worked at HANO in the 1990s and 2000s, said that HANO raised private funds to support residents during her tenure— including for college scholarships and to support former residents of the Lafitte Projects after Hurricane Katrina. But these efforts fell off in more recent years as the agency struggled to maintain properties and fill vacant units.
“Under (Hester) there was more focus on the nuts and bolts because they were struggling,” said Morris. “There wasn’t a focus on those partnerships and certainly not on expanding those partnerships.”
