• Expand grants, loans, and city contracts to historically excluded entrepreneurs, ensuring small businesses get a fair shot.
• Expand access to and host more frequent briefings on upcoming city projects, walking business owners through bidding requirements to ensure a fair and transparent contracting process.
• In partnership with our state and federal partners, develop a Small Business Recovery Fund to help businesses continue to recover from the pandemic and natural disasters.
• Assess and pilot the utilization of vacant city properties for low-cost startup spaces, giving local entrepreneurs an affordable place to grow.

• Partner with local banks and credit unions to provide low-interest loans for small businesses and first-time homebuyers.
• Launch an Economic Mobility Task Force to remove barriers to homeownership, improve credit access, and expand workforce training.
• Expand our roof fortification grant program to help homeowners protect their properties from storms, specifically in New Orleans East and other high impacted areas, reducing long-term insurance costs.

• Continue to prioritize investments in New Orleans East, ensuring access to grocery stores, healthcare, diverse retail options, and economic opportunities.
• Provide incentives to redevelop vacant and underutilized properties, creating job opportunities and economic stability in neighborhoods that need them most.

• Create a Citywide Comprehensive Development Plan to provide clarity and predictability for businesses and neighborhoods, instead of negotiating development deals project by project.
• Develop district-specific development plans in partnership with neighborhoods, council districts, and businesses like the New Orleans East Renaissance plan.
• Establish clear, measurable accountability markers for all city tax breaks and business incentives to ensure public dollars deliver real benefits.
• Implement a digital dashboard tracking economic incentives, ensuring full transparency on where taxpayer money is going.

• Build and preserve 10,000 housing units over the next eight years to support working families.
• Leverage public land to execute on the housing stabilization plan.
• Restore soft-second mortgage programs to help first responders, young professionals, nonprofit workers, and public employees afford homes.
• Establish a dedicated revenue stream for the housing stabilization plan through impact investments and sustainable funding to ensure long-term housing stability.

Small Business Growth & Entrepreneurship

• Increase in city contracts awarded to small and minority-owned businesses, ensuring a fairer distribution of opportunities.
• Reduction in time to secure business licenses and permits, tracking the effectiveness of our one-stop shop for entrepreneurs.
• Number of businesses assisted through grants, loans, or city-funded support programs, ensuring local businesses have the capital to grow.
• Number of businesses launched in vacant city-owned properties, measuring success in turning empty spaces into economic engines.
• Increase in participation in city contractor briefing sessions, ensuring more businesses are competing fairly for city projects.

Job Creation & Workforce Development

• Increase in high-wage jobs created, tracking new opportunities in healthcare, technology, water management, and hospitality.
• Number of youth and returning citizens placed in job training and apprenticeship programs, ensuring economic inclusion.
• Growth in participation in economic mobility programs, tracking efforts to improve homeownership, credit access, and financial literacy.
• Job placement rates from career training programs, ensuring workforce initiatives lead to real employment.

Affordable Housing & Homeownership

• Increase in homeownership rates, particularly among first-time buyers and essential workers (teachers, first responders, hospitality workers).
• Number of affordable housing units built or preserved, tracking our 10,000-unit goal.
• Reduction in housing cost burden, ensuring families aren’t spending an unsustainable portion of income on rent or mortgages.

Strategic Economic Development

• New investments in New Orleans East and underdeveloped communities, tracking funding directed toward historically overlooked areas.
• Increase in businesses relocating or expanding in New Orleans, measuring success in attracting new industries.
• Growth in high-demand job training programs, ensuring more residents are prepared for future job opportunities.
• Creation of an Opportunity Zone framework, measuring how well local assets are being leveraged for economic growth.

Transparency & Accountability

• Public availability of an Economic Development Dashboard, tracking business growth, tax incentives, and job creation.
• Increase in city tax incentives tied to clear performance outcomes, ensuring public dollars deliver measurable benefits.