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Eligibility for the Small Rental Property program

Eligibility to apply for The Road Home Small Rental Property program depends on the characteristics of both the property owner and the rental property.

Property Criteria
Your rental property must meet all three of the following criteria at the time you apply. Failure to meet any one of these will make you ineligible for the Rental program. The property must:

  • Be a residential rental property containing 1 to 4 units on an individual parcel. This includes single-family, duplex, triplex and fourplex rental buildings;
  • Be located in one of the following parishes: Acadia, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Vermilion or Washington; and
  • Have suffered at least $5,200 in damages from Hurricane Katrina or Rita as verified by a visual inspection or a third-party verification (such as FEMA, insurance, or parish estimates).

Single family homes, which were not rental properties prior to the storms, are not eligible properties for the Rental program. Owner occupants of two-unit properties before the storms are eligible to apply to either The Road Home Homeowner Assistance program or to the Rental program in the general pool but may only receive an award in one program or the other. Any property that has received a Compensation Award from The Road Home Homeowner Assistance program is not eligible to apply to the Rental program.

For a condominium to be eligible, the condominium association covenants governing the condominium must allow units to be rented at the affordable rates required by the Rental program. The condominium association must also confirm that the complex is undergoing renovation and allow inspection to determine how conditions in the common areas and adjacent units will impact the habitability of the assisted unit.

Condominiums and town homes which were owner-occupied prior to the storms are not eligible for the Small Rental Property program. However, they were eligible to apply for assistance through The Road Home Homeowner Assistance program. (The Homeowner program's application deadline was July 31, 2007).

Property Owner Criteria
Property owners must also meet certain criteria to be eligible to apply.

To apply as an owner occupant, the the Renal program’s highest priority group, you must have owned and occupied one unit of a three- or four-unit property as a primary residence on or before August 28, 2005 for damages associated with Hurricane Katrina or September 23, 2005 for damages associated with Hurricane Rita. In addition, at least one property owner must agree to live in a unit on the property as his or her primary residence for a period of three years after closing is complete.

To apply as a rental property owner in the general pool, at least one owner (if the property has multiple owners) must have been a Louisiana resident or Louisiana-based business at the time of the storms.

Both pre-storm owners and new investors are eligible to apply, but owners of record who owned their properties on or before August 28, 2005 for damages associated with Hurricane Katrina or September 23, 2005 for damages associated with Hurricane Rita will have a higher priority ranking. New investors competing in the general pool will have the lowest priority.

Eligible applicants for Round 2 could own up to 100 rental properties. In Round 1, eligibility was limited to owners with no more than 20 rental properties.  Where there are multiple property owners, ownership size is determined by the smallest ownership size of any individual or single owner in the ownership group. For Round 2, if at least one owner owns 100 or fewer rental properties, the ownership group meets the ownership size program requirements.  However, if no member of the group owns fewer than 100 rental properties, the group is ineligible for this Round.

Nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply for funding in a special nonprofit set-aside, which requires a commitment to a longer term of affordable rents. To be eligible the current property owner must have an IRS 501(c)(3) designation and be registered to do business in the State of Louisiana at the time of application. Nonprofit organizations are also eligible to compete in the general pool but must meet all general pool eligibility requirements and compete against all others in the pool.  Nonprofit organizations competing in the special nonprofit set-aside compete only against other eligible nonprofit organizations. Please refer to the Nonprofit Set-Aside Supplemental (PDF/394k) for additional details.