CARE's Rebuild Coordinator Toyna Gatt at the dedication ceremony of Emanuel Augustine restored home.

PNOLA & CARE Join Forces to Rebuild Lower Mid-City
New Orleans Local Receives Fresh Home

On March 18, 2008, Phoenix of New Orleans and Crescent Alliance Recovery Effort hosted a house dedication at a newly restored home in Lower Mid-City.  Phoenix of New Orleans (PNOLA) is a young non-profit neighborhood recovery association and newly funded United Way agency dedicated to improving living conditions in Lower Mid-City.

When approached by Emanuel Augustine, a local living in a gutted house which still needed running water, electricity, and mold treatment, PNOLA set forth on a mission to rebuild his home.  Augustine, formerly a banquet supervisor at the Hyatt Regency Hotel (which has never re-opened after Katrina), evacuated to Houston with his 90-year-old mother after Katrina, where they lived for three months.  Upon returning to New Orleans, Augustine was unable to find affordable housing or a job that would afford him the same standard of living that he had pre-Katrina.  Unable to make ends meet, he returned from his daily shifts as a part-time hotel banquet server to 2x4 four walls, exposed pipes, no utilities and was forced to sleep on salvaged furniture.

Mr. Augustine's completed home.

In order to accomplish the task of rebuilding Augustine’s home, PNOLA pooled resources with Crescent Alliance Recovery Effort (CARE), a collaborative of non-profit, faith-based and governmental agencies focused on post-Katrina recovery in New Orleans. CARE, the long term recovery organization for Orleans Parish, facilitated the donation of nearly $40,000 for Mr. Augustine’s complete rebuild through donations from the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and United Way.

Since October 2007, PNOLA and their volunteers working on Mr. Augustine’s home have completely redone the home from the roof to the floor, including wheel-chair access for his 90-year-old mother who can now proudly return to her native home of New Orleans.

Additionally, other organizations that contributed to this special project include the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership (GNODRP), Home Depot, Royal Furniture, BR-111, Tremco and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.

“Six non-profit agencies came together, each doing their part, big or small, and at the end, a beautiful house stood before all our eyes.  House by house, we are rebuilding the pieces of New Orleans,” says Tonya Gatt, CARE’s Rebuild Coordinator.

For more information about PNOLA, please contact Ryan Porcelli at PNOLA either by phone, 504-342-4399, or by email, volunteer@pnola.org.  For more information about the CARE effort, please contact Tonya Gatt at TonyaG@unitedwaynola.org.