Hoops for Homes

One of the joys of working with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans is learning about all the organizations that partner with Habitat. The musicians who purchased the land for "Musicians' Village" have gotten a lot of national press, and they really are making a huge impact through their financial contributions and encouraging volunteers to come from around the country.

We are working in New Orleans East, a few miles away from Musicians' Village, where the New Orleans professional basketball team, the Hornets, have been a major contributor. They have committed to build 20 homes this year, come out to raise walls, and advertise Habitat for Humanity at their games.

Last night we cheered the Hornets on to a victory over the Seattle Sonics, courtesy of the team. They donated a large block of tickets to Habitat, and as long-term volunteers, we were part of the group.

"When the Levees Broke"

Before coming to New Orleans in January, 2006, to gut houses with a group from Rockfish Presbyterian Church in Nellysford, we had seen the TV images and had read a couple of books on the damage that hurricane Katrina inflicted on the city and neighboring parishes. We were, however, totally unprepared for the extent of the damage that the levee failures had caused. It must be seen to be believed. Even a year and a half after the storm and a lot of rebuilding, the city is still suffering.

Since the 1920s, Congress has charged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the responsibility of protecting the American people from devastating floods, and to do this the Corps has built levees–thousands of miles of levees–wherever rivers or lakes might threaten lives and property. The Corp has built levees from Hartford, Connecticut to Sacramento, California and on all the major rivers in between.

By its own admission, in a 6,000 page investigative report issued in June, 2006, the Corps admitted that the levees it had built to protect the city of New Orleans had been poorly designed and inadequately constructed. It is certainly understandable, then, why folks in the city blame the Corps for the levee failure that resulted in 80 percent of the city being flooded. It was clearly a man-made disaster.

Happy Mardi Gras

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For years we had envisioned Mardi Gras as nothing more than a crowd of drunks walking up and down Bourbon Street, so we were quite surprised to find that it's a very family oriented event which brings the whole community together--black and white, young and old, locals and tourists. For example, fancy ladders were positioned along St. Charles Avenue so that small children could see the parade and catch stuffed toys and beads that the krewes threw from the floats. And the parades seemed endless--more than 50 of them in the days leading up to Mardi Gras and two huge ones --Zulu and Rex--each with over 25 floats, marching bands and equestrian teams on Mardi Gras. One of the highlights for us was watching the Zulu chiefs arrive by boat on Lundi Gras (fat Monday) to the sound of local jazz bands followed by welcoming remarks from Mayor Nagin. We ended our Mardi Gras on Frenchmen Street where we were fascinated by the spontaneous revelers in outlandish costumes--a great ending to our first Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras on Frenchmen Street

Habitat for Humanity

New Orleans Habitat for Humanity is one of the bright spots in the New Orleans’ landscape. It is a program to provide homes for low income, working families who invest 350 hours of their own labor to qualify for an interest-free, twenty-year mortgage on a well-built hurricane proof home of about 1,000 square feet. The Habitat program is based on volunteer labor, and in New Orleans this includes high school students, local residents, people from all over the country, businesses, sports teams, celebrities, and future Habitat homeowners. We have been impressed with the monetary donations that have come from individuals, churches, and corporations. There is also a small, dedicated, paid staff that supervises the building

Completed Habitat for Humanity homes



Keith with Stephanie and Lee, high school volunteers from Marrero, which is just across the Mississippi from New Orleans.

New Orleans Recovery

New Orleans is rebuilding, but very, very slowly. The will is there but the money isn’t, contrary to what most of the country thinks. True, Congress has appropriated billions of dollars to help in the recovery of the whole Gulf Coast but two–at least two–problems are holding things back in New Orleans..
The funds allocated for desperately needed infrastructure repair are very slow in coming because of a regulation requiring a 10 percent, local commitment to each project whether it be a school, hospital, government building, road repair or public transportation. With half the population still unable to return and the tax base correspondingly reduced, the city simply does not have funds to match the federal funds, so the rebuilding has been stymied. (It’s worth noting that in many disasters such as Hurricane Andrew, the 9/11 attacks in New York and major floods in other parts of the country the feds have waived this requirement. Not so this time. It’s a city with a Democratic mayor and a state with a Democratic governor.)
Congress established a Road Home program and appropriated $7.4 billion to provide individual families funds to rebuild their homes. Rather than have a government agency administering the program the job was privatized by awarding the contract to a firm-- ICF Inc.– a firm which has been totally unable to handle the job in spite of the $740 million it’s being paid to do so. At this time–18 months after Katrina–only 500 families have received any Road Home funds. That’s 500 families out of 100,000 who have applied!