Opportunity houses, rebuilding communities

I thought I was going down to New Orleans to help homeowners rebuild their houses that had been damaged during Hurricane Katrina (and subsequently Rita), but it turned out that what we were really doing was helping to rebuild communities.

For this trip One Brick volunteers were working on what St Bernard Project calls Opportunity Houses. After Katrina, many houses and lots had been left behind by those who couldn’t or didn’t want to return to New Orleans. SBP has purchased some of these abandoned houses and lots in order to build new houses, or fix up old ones, to be sold at low prices with good mortgages to first time home buyers who either lived in New Orleans pre-Katrina or have been there for several years now and show commitment to the community.

At first it was tough for me to connect to the work; having never been to New Orleans before I couldn't entirely see the impact this would have on the people or the communities. But after spending a week there, and coming home to tell family and friends about my trip, I began to realize just what we were doing. The wealth gap in New Orleans right now is huge and quite obvious when you look around. By rebuilding and building in these blighted neighborhoods it not only makes owning a home become more achievable and affordable but also helps to lift up the whole neighborhood. It will help to bring people who were forced to leave back to neighborhoods; it raises the property values of the surrounding homes, and begins to rebuild the community as a whole.

I started writing this blog and recap of my first One Brick volunteer trip to New Orleans on my way home. And I felt like I was spending a fair amount of time thinking about what could have made it better. But when it came time to actually talking out loud to people about what I'd seen, what I'd done, what I noticed around me, and how I felt about the trip, I never actually mentioned those "could have been better” things. I spent my time talking about how important these new homes were going to be for the future of New Orleans.

People are right when they tell you New Orleans has a rhythm all of its own. And that the city’s rhythm is not unlike the rhythms of its well-known jazz music scene: improvised, conflicting, offbeat, smooth, and danceable. You can't help but feel surrounded by the liveliness and art that fills the city; while you drive, while you walk, while you sit. It's in your ears with the abundance of musical performers, in your nose and taste buds with the amazing culinary traditions, in your sights with the murals, sculptures, and galleries, and eventually it’s just alive within you.

But there are also parts of New Orleans that might break your heart. For me those parts came as I drove through neighborhoods that had been underwater and seeing the abandoned buildings and the devastating looking dwellings that people are still forced to live in. And as I drove through neighborhoods that have been rebuilt save for the lone, abandoned, overgrown water damaged house. And as I drove through streets that felt as though I may well have been off-roading. And as I stood near the big levee, looking out over the Lower 9th Ward where so much devastation took place.

It's both of these reasons that will bring me back. It will be hard to resist the artistic, jazzy charms of such an old city. And so I want to help. I may not know the old glory that New Orleans was before Katrina, but I can see that she has a bright future with much more life and art to come.