WBRZ - Baton Rouge

PLAQUEMINE - The Iberville Parish Council has authorized Parish President J. Mitchell Ourso to issue a $6.1 million loan-commitment letter to a Mississippi company to build affordable housing in St. Gabriel.

The loan to New Horizons Group is part of more than $40 million allocated under the federal disaster recovery program for hurricanes Ike and Gustav, Thomas David, manager of Iberville's Community Development Block Grant program, tells The Advocate.

Iberville already is using more than half the grant money to build a $20 million medical complex in Plaquemine.

The loan will serve as leverage toward the developer's construction of a 120-unit, multifamily apartment complex on a 16-acre site off Louisiana Highway 74 in St. Gabriel, David said.

Total cost of the project, called Windsor Court, is about $16.3 million, David said.