New Orleans has been paying private contractors using a service list that includes thousands of addresses that may be vacant, duplicated, nonexistent or otherwise ineligible for taxpayer-funded trash collection.

A Louisiana Legislative Auditor review released Wednesday found 12,915 of the city’s 164,625 approved sanitation locations — nearly 8% — were potentially improperly included on the list used to pay contractors. The city had no formal process for routinely cleaning up the database.

That included 4,900 addresses the city itself had already classified as retired, meaning they were no longer valid addresses. The city told auditors it had not analyzed its sanitation list to remove retired addresses since the current contracts began in 2022.

Auditors separately found 442 duplicate addresses that cost the city $318,767 between December 2022 and March 2026. Another 8,077 locations appeared potentially ineligible based on Orleans Parish Assessor records, including vacant lots and properties such as hotels that are supposed to arrange private garbage collection.

The problem is not new.

A New Orleans Inspector General investigation in 2010 similarly found serious inaccuracies in the city’s sanitation lists. In one contractor’s service area, inspectors determined 20% of a random sample was ineligible for city-funded collection and concluded the city could not effectively monitor the contract because it lacked an accurate list of locations being serviced.

Sixteen years later, the new audit found the city also had not routinely compared its service list against Sewerage and Water Board billing records. Auditors identified 7,833 locations receiving city sanitation services that were not billed a sanitation fee during the first four months of 2026. Another 4,583 service locations were listed as vacant by SWBNO.

Those discrepancies come as New Orleans considers charging residents more for trash collection.

The standard residential sanitation fee has remained $24 per month since 2011 even as contractor rates have increased with inflation. In 2025, the city received $38.2 million in sanitation revenue but paid $59.3 million for collection, recycling and landfill tipping fees, leaving the general fund to absorb roughly $21.1 million. Auditors calculated that a $36.26 monthly fee would have been needed to cover those costs last year.

The city is also paying for recycling at every eligible location even though only 67,354 — about 41% — have opted into the program and received a recycling bin. Because residents currently pay no recycling fee, those contracts are costing the city about $907,000 more per month than it collects for recycling.

The fee debate was already underway before the audit. Council records show an ordinance to overhaul sanitation fees was introduced March 12 but repeatedly deferred, including to a July 23 meeting.

Mayor Helena Moreno requested the state review before moving forward with a fee reset, saying in March that officials first needed an accurate count of households receiving service. Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack agreed.

“I think it’s imperative that we get the household count right,” Waguespack said.

The city now says it will spend roughly seven months reconciling sanitation records with SWBNO and assessor data, removing duplicate and retired addresses and verifying vacant or ineligible properties. It also plans to conduct a new cost-of-service analysis before recommending future fee changes.