The Department of Safety and Permits of the City of New Orleans, LA has in recent years been changing addresses on streets that are not consecutively numbered. This is causing a great deal of disruption in the lives of residents, many of whom have lived in their current home for years or even decades. Until recently, they were giving residents just 30 days’ notice to complete this change. They recently extended this to 60 days’ notice. We do not think that is adequate. 

Instead, we are asking Safety and Permits to halt the program until and unless they can give factual, statistical proof of a safety problem. If they cannot, we are asking that they cease this program and follow an alternative course of action which we outline below in THE SOLUTION.

THE DISRUPTION

Residents are currently receiving notices from the Department of Safety and Permits that their existing addresses are being changed and that they have a certain period to comply with this change. One neighborhood in Algiers, Aurora Gardens (aka “Old Aurora), received an unusually large number of these notices beginning in the summer of 2022. The neighborhood was developed over a long period of time (1940s-1970s) and at least two different numbering systems were used.

Notified of the problem, Aurora Gardens Neighborhood Association (AGNA) requested information from CM Freddie King, who directed our request to Eneida Allison, ITS III GIS-Addressing, Safety and Permits. She replied: “Addressing received a number of addressing problems from different agencies. Safety and Permits put together a set of standards and presented them to Council that were adopted in late 2016.”  

 

We asked particularly what agencies are notified by Safety and Permits and were told: “Addressing notifies the Assessor’s office, USPS AMS, OPCD, ENTERGY, and SWBNO when we complete the addressing process. At that time, we also give the Homeowners a Certificate showing the address change which they can submit to whomever they need to that is questioning the validity of the change of address.” 

That sounds simple but consider how many agencies need to be notified. 

A check online gives the following list for of what to do to when moving:  File a USPS address change online or in person, Driver’s license, Vehicle registration, Complete Form 8822 with the IRS, Social Security Administration (if you receive Social Security or Medicare benefits), Voter registration, Passport, Banks and investment services, Loan issuers, Credit card companies, Retail credit accounts, Accountant and tax advisors, Gas, Electricity, Water, Sewage, Internet, Cable, Phone, Health insurance, Dental insurance, Vision insurance, Life insurance, Auto insurance, Homeowner or renter’s insurance, Employer, Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers, Veterinarian, Retail websites, Streaming services, PayPal or Venmo, Retail clubs like Costco or Sam’s Club, Magazines , Google Maps and Apple Maps, Uber, Lyft, and Waze, Subscription boxes, Gyms, Religious institutions (Sources: https://www.mymove.com/moving-checklists/change-of-address-checklist/;​ https://www.moving.com/tips/change-address-checklist-who-to-notify-when-you-move/;​ https://www.neighbor.com/storage-blog/change-of-address-checklist/

The time and expense of making these changes is entirely borne by the residents affected by the address change, with no remuneration by the City of New Orleans which (1) originally issued these out-of-sequence addresses and (2) now mandates that they be changed to be sequential. In fact, no other assistance is offered by the City other than to issue a Certificate verifying the change of address. Lower-income residents often lack internet access, making the process particularly hard for them. Many residents are elderly or infirm and will need help with the process. None is offered. 

We have been told by a representative of Safety and Permits: “While we are very well aware of what changing an address affects a homeowner, we are also very aware of what it means to have an address that is out of sequence.” But is there any actual evidence that this is a public safety issue? Or is this this just an assumption? Many of these addresses have been in use for years. In many cases the addresses targeted for decades. Long term residents cannot recall any incident when emergency personnel were unable to locate an address. 

THE JUSTIFICATION GIVEN

One might expect that these changes are based on statistics showing the danger to public safety posed by out-of-sequence house numbers. In answer to our questions to Safety and Permits, however, we were not given any historical data, or even anecdotal evidence of a problem.

Instead, we are given a hypothetical situation: “Can you picture a first responder who is traveling up the 5600 block of [X Street] and gets a call to 200 [X Street]. That first responder may look up and see the addresses increasing in his travel way, so he turns around to go back to the 200 block. It may take a long time for him to find that he has to turn back around because these blocks are not numbered correctly.”

This scenario might have been plausible in prior generations. Today, with Global Positioning System (GPS), every municipal address is linked to GPS coordinates established with the aid of space satellites. Given a municipal address, every GPS-enabled device, including virtually every smartphone, can give turn-by-turn directions of the most direct or speediest route to that address from the driver’s current position. With that technology, why would an emergency responder use house numbers for navigation, which are displayed in various locations and ways on individual houses or not displayed at all?

Of course, GPS is not perfect. Some addresses may not show up correctly on navigation devices or apps. With time, many of these mis-assigned GPS coordinates have been corrected. It is simply a matter of updating database records so that every address is associated with the correct GPS coordinates. In principle, even a randomly generated series of address numbers could be associated with a correct GPS coordinates. This suggests a solution that avoids creating needless difficulties and costs to residents.

THE SOLUTION

Rather than changing long-established addresses of residents, the City of New Orleans should use its limited resources to identify addresses which - for whatever reason – do not have correct GPS coordinates associated with them which are used by commonly used apps such as Google Maps or Waze. They could then report these disparities to The National Address Database, which is a composite of authoritative addressing information submitted by participating U.S. states. (GPS.gov: How to Report a Mapping Problem Affecting GPS Devices, Apps, and Maps)

We respectfully request the City Council of New Orleans to direct the Department of Safety and Permits to implement this change of policy, therefore leaving current addresses in place, or to give adequate reasons, based on factual evidence, not hypotheticals, that this solution would not work.