The MURP 4005/5005 Introduction to Neighborhood Planning course provided service learning to HousingNOLA. HousingNOLA focuses on issues that relate to housing, employment, socio-economic development, community engagement, public policy and strategic uses of data to empower individuals and enrich the non-profit, public and private sectors. The course provided an introduction to neighborhood issues that HousingNOLA cares about and strives to make better: community involvement in the planning process. The focus of the project research was on US Federal Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZ) and how this national policy has been deployed in both New Orleans, LA.
The research report will serve as a ‘first look’ at NOLA QOZs from the national to state to local perspectives. The NOLA QOZ report will be shared with the City of New Orleans Municipal Offices and the New Orleans Business Alliance who is leading the development of a QOZ strategic plan. UNO Students identified and tested free public and private geospatial analysis and map making services. The students have shared guides to online mapping resources to summarize the conditions, and create a profile, of the QOZ that was “adopted” for the class