Forgotten City:

Nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina and the massive flooding that followed, New Orleans is still struggling to house their people. Over 40% of pre-Katrina residents have been relocated to other cities or chose to move away to live with friends or relatives. Over 80% of the homes in the city were uninhabitable after the storm and today it isn’t much better. Looters and squatters added to the destruction, often setting fires that were impossible to fight before the water receded. A typical block looks deceptively normal until you look closer. A red X painted on the front wall indicates in code: the home’s condition, who checked the house first, bodies found, or pets inside, and often you find that it is condemned or unfit for human habitation. Badly damaged homes have been removed in some areas, but little has been done in others. Near the broken tank farms, where the homes and yards are contaminated with the spilled oil and gasoline, people may never be able to return to rebuild. Standing water, twelve feet deep in some places, soaked old plaster and insulation and, when the water finally receded, mold and mildew proliferated. Homes must be stripped of all drywall, plaster, insulation, wiring, ductwork, equipment and appliances before rebuilding can begin. Thankfully much of this has been done by non-profits and individuals fortunate enough to get a FEMA trailer to live in while they work on their home. Now we learn that the indoor air in those trailers is toxic and the trailers are unfit for extended living. New Orleans Mayor Nagen has promised to remove all of the FEMA trailers this summer due to fears that the summer heat will force more toxic gases out of insulation and glues inside the trailers.
Governments, Federal, State, and City, appear to have turned their backs to the plight of individuals who have not had the use of their home for over three years. Insurance companies, who told homeowners that they did not need flood insurance in large areas of the city because their was no anticipation that the levees would break (like they did), have not yet paid the people they owe. Families who did manage to collect insurance found themselves vulnerable to predatory contractors who collected an initial payment for rebuilding work and never returned. Mortgage companies insisted that people use their insurance money to pay off their mortgage, which left homeowners with no money for rebuilding. People talk of graft and corruption but details are hard to come by. The sadness, frustration and anger with the actions or inactions of the governments that have a duty to help can be seen clearly in the faces of the men and women I talked with.

The bright lights in this story are: the hundreds of volunteers that come from around the country and the world, the non-profit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together New Orleans, and the neighborhood groups that have bonded together to form their own quasi governments to repair the infrastructure and restore the services of water, sewer, gas and electric power in their neighborhoods. Here you see the best in people. There are heroes at work and hope is in the eyes of those being helped.

Several of us with the 50+ Council of the National Association of Homebuilders volunteered to help for two days while we attended the 50+ Symposium in New Orleans. We offered our labor and our skills to the non-profit group, Rebuilding Together New Orleans. They put us to work on the double shotgun home of Mrs. Hilda Levy 67 and her mother Hazel Tate 87. Shotgun homes, the historic housing form in New Orleans, are narrow houses that are one room wide and very deep. It’s necessary to walk through rooms, including bedrooms, to get from the front to the rear. A double shotgun is just as it sounds, two homes side by side. We repaired damaged siding, installed new siding, scraped and painted the exterior and began work renovating the interior. Other groups of volunteers will pick up where we left off under the capable leadership of the skilled construction superintendents and managers. In this way, Rebuilding Together, one of many non-profit groups working around the city, has refurbished over 1000 homes, but that’s very little when compared to the need for more volunteers, more financing and more help of every kind our brothers and sisters of New Orleans require.

Organize your own group of volunteers and contact Rebuilding Together. We worked in the St. Roche neighborhood which is an older part of the city, but newer neighborhoods across the river suffered the same fate and don’t have the historic homes to attract attention to their plight. You can volunteer for a few days, or a week or more. Even one day is appreciated. Put a group together from: your office, your school, church or club to give up a little of their time and travel money to spend a few days helping those that are in need. If you aren’t able to work physically, go see the city and talk to the people. For some great music after work, Frenchman Street is the place recommended by the locals. Good food can still be found everywhere. New Orleans is struggling but its heart still beats.

Contrary to my initial fear of intruding and being a disaster tourist, we are welcome in any capacity. You can do as I’m doing here, tell your friends and let others know the story of the people who have been forgotten in New Orleans. To contact Rebuilding Together, go to www.rtno.org, call (504) 581-7032, or contact the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. You can also seek out other groups active in New Orleans. Habitat for Humanity, for instance, is building new homes in Musicians village and in scattered neighborhoods around the city.