Fifteen years later, Crescent City’s most vulnerable are still struggling. But over the past two and a half decades, the national nonprofit Rebuild Building has helped restore families together, and has carried out serious repairs to 1,750 homes there.
Born together with Reconstruction in the Midlands of Texas, a small group of residents saw a growing need in their community.
Caroline Blackley, president of Rebuilding Together, said, “It’s a great bottom-up, community-based organization of neighbors, helping to improve the housing of low-income residents.”
The organization now has affiliates across the country and more than 100,000 volunteers with a simple mission: repairing homes, reviving communities and building lives.
“Our beneficiaries are homeowners who have low-income (and) can get their homes repaired to allow them to live in their home,” Blackley told CNN. “We need communities to live together to help each other and to allow building ownership, which is the greatest asset for building wealth.”
When structural racism and no disaster will clash
Katrina was no equal-opportunity storm. Even though tourist areas and most of the city’s white neighborhoods have turned up again, many black homeowners don’t have that kind of luck.
“If you go through the Ninth Ward, you still see Katrina in every other street,” said William Stdt, executive director of Rebuilding Too Dar New Orleans.
Blur, empty lots and desolation are still common in the Lower Ninth Ward, the main part of the city being the black part.
“Policies have made it difficult for African American families to return.”
Decades-old racial discrimination and separation before Katrina pushed many black families into less desirable neighborhoods that are not protected from flooding and house values are low.
“The building you were given to rebuild was directly linked to the value of your home, not how much it cost to rebuild,” the student said.
Residents had no choice but to cut corners on repairs, and even worse, live in conditions that endanger their health and safety. Fifteen years after the flood, very little recovery money flows into the city, and that’s why Re-Building Tugrade is committed to its work.
Vietnam War veterans struggle to rebuild
“They called us New Orleans refugees, refugees,” said Felix Lewis.
Lewis, affectionately known as “Mr. Felix”, is a 65-year-old veteran of Vietnam and a resident of New Orleans. He tried to tear down his house years later after Katrina’s footsteps flooded.
The student said Lewis used the insurance money he received to refram the building, replace the siding and do electrical and plumbing work.
“But that wasn’t enough,” he said.
“He essentially lived in a guttural, partially rebuilt building.”
Finally, in 2019, Lewis joined Rebuilding Tugrether.
“With our partners and volunteers, we were able to bring them all back home together,” Studdt said. “Even today, 15 years later, hundreds of ‘Mr Felix’ have come out who didn’t get the chance.”
The need for an epidemic increases but volunteer work is forced
Home repairs have become more daunting during coronavirus epidemics. Reconstruction has seen a skyrocketing demand for aid.
“People don’t work, and they have literally no way of repairing the house,” St People Datt explained. “It could be a small leak, or it could be a massive renovation pipe break; you name it, they have no resources.”
The organization relies heavily on volunteers from corporate sponsors, but the ability to volunteer in this remote work environment has diminished. Now, they rely heavily on contract workers, which cost more.
“We’re doing more with less,” Studdt said. “While the epidemic is horrific in many ways, we know that our work is more important today than it was six months ago.”
Most of the affected are elderly people who, due to their age, rely on re-building together to keep their homes safe and livable.
“Our work keeps people away from nursing homes, which are usually more at risk during these epidemics,” Stududet said. “We need to get here, and we’ll find a way to make it work.”
“We need people who want to get involved, who want to support.”
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