It has been almost a year since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, ruining more than 90,000 homes. One of the worst-hit areas was the Upper Ninth Ward. Now it’s the site of the largest Habitat for Humanity project ever undertaken by a single denomination anywhere in the world.
Inspired by David Crosby, the pastor of First Baptist Church, New Orleans, the venture is called the Baptist Crossroads Project. Organized by the nonprofit Baptist Crossroads Foundation in partnership with Baptist Community Ministries and the New Orleans affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, Crossroads plans to build about 30 houses in three months in an area still abandoned nearly one year after the storm.
The project actually began before Katrina, in 2004, when Crosby heard New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin say home ownership was the most important factor in eradicating poverty.
The roughly $3 million project is funded in part by a $1.5 million matching grant from Baptist Community Ministries, the largest private foundation in Louisiana. After Katrina, Habitat for Humanity became a matching partner, too. After Crossroads completes the initial 30 homes between June and August, First, New Orleans, plans to build 110 more houses in the same area over the next two years for a total of 140 houses, according to project coordinator Inman Houston.
“We’re focusing here because after the storm, this was an area that had great need,” Houston said. “But at the same time, this is an area that can and should come back.” Houston is associate pastor of community ministries and single adults at First, New Orleans.
To get a house, applicants must undergo a screening process that takes into account family finances and demographics. Each three-bedroom, one-bath house is worth $85,000 to $90,000, but families pay roughly $60,000 for them through a 20-year, no-interest loan.
House recipients must also provide 350 hours of “sweat” equity, said Andrew Crosby, ministry intern at First, New Orleans, and nephew of the pastor. That entails long days working on the purple, blue, pink and yellow houses slowing forming a new neighborhood.
Houston funnels a steady stream of volunteers from all over the county to work on the homes. Most stay for a week, sleeping in surrounding churches. They get free lunches provided by area churches as well. They come from all backgrounds — Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Catholic and Lutheran — and, according to Andrew Crosby, they all put in full days of work.
Habitat for Humanity employee Matt Ritter said Baptist Crossroads averages more than 300 workers a week. Over spring break, more than 4,000 students descended on the area to help gut houses. So far, more than 600 have been completed.
The partnership between Habitat for Humanity and First, New Orleans, works well because it plays to the strengths of both organizations, Houston said.
While Habitat has the means to procure loans and administrate large numbers of people, the church has received gifts of money, volunteer support and counsel from state conventions and local churches.
Playing on those convention connections, First, New Orleans, also provides Habitat with a constant supply of man — and woman — power. “We can say [to Habitat leaders] that we can commit to give you x amount of volunteers, as opposed to random individuals who work for one or two days at a time,” Houston said. “Honestly, this summer, we haven’t had the time or need to do much recruiting.”
The key to keeping volunteer numbers up almost a year after the storm is constant contact with people still directly affected.
Houston said the congregation has “one foot in the flood zone and one foot out of the flood zone.” As a result, members are faced with displaced people every Sunday morning.
That attitude has caught the attention of local authorities, too. Houston said churches have become known as the places to go “if you really want to get something done.” The church has created waiting lists of houses in need of gutting and restoration.
Perhaps one of the most encouraging developments since the hurricane is the relationship between First, New Orleans, and Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans, a primarily black congregation of 5,000.
Members from Franklin Avenue Baptist, who had been meeting only twice a month, recently began meeting each Sunday at 7:30 a.m. in the building of First, New Orleans.
First, New Orleans, members sometimes usher in the earlier service, and a real sisterhood between the two churches has emerged, Houston said. “Certainly this is not the way we would have chosen for that to come about, but we have seen good things happen,” he said.
Ultimately the most important of those “good things” is intangible — it’s that the houses will show non-Christian homeowners that hope exists for the Ninth Ward.
Many from the community had anticipated returning to a neighborhood completely abandoned.
Instead, come September, they’ll return to new neighbors. Families for each of the Baptist Crossroads houses will move in during the next few weeks, after a dedication ceremony planned for Aug. 19.
“We feel really energized by this,” Andrew Crosby said. “It’s amazing. This has been a wildly successful year.” (ABP)
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