Report from New Orleans with Habitat For Humanity

By Audrey Lane Geis

Going to New Orleans was an unfathomable experience. While Hurricane Katrina has disappeared from the national headlines, more than a year and a half later, it still engulfs all the local news. While the nation may want us to believe otherwise, the South has not recovered from the disaster.

I went to volunteer for Habitat For Humanity with a group of twelve students and one advisor from my school, Emerson College, located in Boston. Habitat is a non-profit organization that works with homeowners to provide affordable new homes; it does not provide free houses. It costs a buyer $75,000 to purchase a Habitat house. Even though all the labor is done by volunteers, the materials still have to be paid for.

My group worked on a series of houses throughout a few block area in New Orleans East. Next to the bright new houses that we worked on were homes completely abandoned by their occupants, some of which still contained a lifetime of ruined belongings.  While it was wonderful to work on Habitat houses, I can't help but feel that we as a nation should be doing more.

While many residents thanked us and blessed us for our hard work, there were just as many who gave us dirty scowls and did not return our waves. What about the people who don't fit the Habitat criteria for a new home? From the perspective of a resident who is still trying to put their home and life back together after the storm, it looks as if Habitat has everything. Many of them cannot help but ask why they themselves aren't receiving help.

Our last day of volunteering turned bittersweet when we found that a refrigerator and washer/dryer had been stolen from one of the almost completed houses. It was the fourth break-in that week. We spent the afternoon moving the furniture out of all the houses and into more secure storage containers. We all stayed long after our day of volunteering should have ended, but none of us even thought to stop. The police, immensely short in number as many of their force did not return after the storm, told us that any empty house will continue to get looted because the need for appliances is still so great.

Despite this, I don't have it in my heart to be mad at the thieves. From the perspective of someone who has lost everything, it looks like the Habitat homeowners have it all. The idea of dispersing the new houses throughout dilapidated areas is that they will revitalize the whole area. Hopefully it can succeed in doing this, not creating a larger divide between the people who can afford it, and the people who cannot.

Much more needs to be done to rebuild this community. While volunteers are still coming to New Orleans every day, it seems as if the greater population has forgotten. Only a few blocks away from the lights and laughter of Bourbon St. there is a whole other world that is still in shambles. And this is not just New Orleans; the surrounding areas need help too. We, as citizens, must realize that this is a national problem. Government assistance isn't getting the job done. Many schools still remain closed, abandoned houses still outnumber inhabited ones, people still have not returned to their city. We can't keep ignoring this disaster.

I implore you to get out there and do something. Whether it is spreading the word about the disaster that is still not over or getting out there yourself, something has to be done.

Go to www.habitat-nola.org or www.camphopeonline.com to learn more about what you can do. Outside of transportation to and from the site, it only costs $150 per week to stay at Habitat's Camp Hope. It isn't difficult to go and it is a mind-opening experience.