New Orleans city officials Nov. 5 warned deep cuts in the 2026 budget proposed by Mayor LaToya Cantrell will hit a host of critical services hard next year, including affordable housing efforts and programs to help the unhoused.
Cantrell’s final budget proposal as mayor involves tens of millions of dollars in reductions across government, due to an expected shortfall in revenues totaling at least $200 million next year. Those shortfalls are separate from the more than $160 million funding gap her administration is facing between now and the end of the year.
Office of Homeless Services and Strategy Director Nate Fields said on Nov. 5 that the nearly $4.6 million in cuts to his office’s current $11 million budget would mean layoffs and less resources to move people into permanent housing. As a result, shelters would fill up, and encampments could form again, he said, undoing a lot of the progress the office has made to house people…