New Orleans Habitat for Humanity
Volunteers Build Hundreds of Houses on Devastated Gulf Coast
New Orleans' Musicians Village symbolizes Habitat for Humanity's massive home building program in Katrina-wrecked areas.
Thousands of Habitat for Humanity volunteers have poured into Louisiana and Mississippi to build hundreds of flood-resistant, low-cost houses for families who lost their homes in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita The building program is expected to run for several years.
The homes are sold, not given away. Low income families invest about 350 hours of "sweat equity" to cover the house down payment. They buy the small 3-bedroom houses at Habitat cost (about $100,000) and take on 20-year interest-free loans. Habitat officials said because of recently increased insurance rates, monthly payments run about $600 per month.
The Musicians Village in New Orleans' flood-devastated Ninth Ward has become a symbol of the highly praised Habitat for Humanity program. Rows of brightly painted, raised houses are going up in the area as volunteers drive and fly in from distant points of North America and contributions pour in from around the world. Habitat for Humanity officials hope to build 300 homes in the area.
Marsalis, Connick Visualized Musicians Village
The Musicians Village was conceived by two New Orleans natives, Saxophonist Branford Marsalis and singer Harry Connick Jr. Their program will also include the building of the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, which is being named for the patriarch of the Marsalis musical clan. It is hoped that the music center will help stimulate the return of more New Orleans musicians who had to evacuate in the aftermath of Katrina.
Branford Marsalis and Connick serve as honorary chairmen of Habitat for Humanity’s Katrina rebuilding program.
In 2007 the Dave Matthews Band organized a concert with the New Orleans-born Neville Brothers and the John Butler Trio. The Denver concert raised enough money to issue a $1.5 million challenge grant to Habitat.
Jim Pate, executive director of New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity said "the entertainment industry and other corporate partners have been phenomenally supportive of the New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village."
Over 200 houses completed or started
By September 2007, Habitat for Humanity had completed 73 houses and had another 133 under construction in the area. Another 49 had been built in the Camp Coastal Partnership project.
Habitat for Humanity volunteers also gutted more than 2,000 homes shortly after the storms.
In May 2007, Habitat for Humanity International estimated it had received about $133 million in cash and product contributions for its hurricane recovery program.
50,000 volunteers, 3000 house applicants
It also estimated that nearly 50,000 individuals had volunteered to help the Katrina rebuilding program.and nearly 3,000 families in the area had applied for Habitat-built houses.
In 2007, Habitat officials said they needed about 1,000 volunteers per day to meet their home building schedules. Two years after Katrina and Rita, at least some officials were expressing concern that "Katrina-fatigue" might start affecting both volunteers and contributors.
However, Habitat already had substantial commitments extending well into 2008 from such groups as the "Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project," the New Orleans First Baptist Church, and the New Orleans Hornets basketball team. And as they completed their own recovery, New Orleans area groups such as Kiwanis clubs were taking up some of the slack left by declining out-of-town volunteers.
