Christopher Homes Housing Development

Christopher Homes, also known as Christopher Park Homes (nicknamed "Da Chris"), was a public housing project in Algiers, New Orleans, operated by HANO, with originally 250 townhouse style units which opened in 1971. It would be celebrated as the nation's first rent-to-own public housing project.

Christopher Park Homes Housing Development
General information
Location	1900 Murl Street, New Orleans, LA 70114  United States
Status	Demolished
Construction
Constructed	1969-1970
Demolished	1995-2013
Other information
Governing body	Housing Authority of New Orleans
Famous residents	Joe Blakk, G-Slimm, Tre-8

Since the complex first opened, disgusted homeowners have been driven away by Formosan termites and rotting wood left under the complex's flat roofs.[1] Families also fled in the 1980s after a ceiling collapsed on a girl's head and a roof leak caused an electrical short that set a boy's bed on fire.[2] Due to the poor living conditions pest became a major problem for residents living in the Christopher Homes. There have been numerous reports about large rodents known as "Nutria Rats" rooming though the buildings and outside but HANO refuse to get the buildings fumigated. The development was dominated by drug dealers as it became ground zero for Heroin and Crack cocaine sells. By the early 1990s, frequent robberies, murders and drug dealing became the way of life in the Christopher Homes.[3]

In the early 2000s, Christopher Homes was severely run-down with only 150 units occupied as the rest were demolished or boarded up and abandoned. Several years before Hurricane Katrina, HANO, for reasons unknown, quit leasing the complex's vacant apartments.[4] By 2005, only 80 units were occupied. In April 2013 The demolition on Christopher Homes was complete.[5]