Recover, Rebuild, Rebirth: Hurricane to Homecoming
Almost five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Volunteers of America opened its first new affordable senior housing community in the region since the storm and is welcoming back residents displaced by the hurricane. The official grand opening occurred Friday, March 26, 2010.
In late January 2010, the first residents moved into The Terraces on Tulane, a new 200-unit affordable housing community for seniors located New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood. For many of these people, moving in to their new apartments was a joyous homecoming and a chance to reconnect with old neighbors and friends.
Located at 3615 Tulane Avenue, the community replaces Forest Towers East, a former Volunteers of America community badly damaged by Katrina. The Terraces on Tulane includes a computer lab and other amenities for residents such as health and medical services and planned social, educational and recreational activities. More than 60 former residents of Forest Towers East will be returning to live in The Terraces on Tulane.
One of those residents is 74-year old Alice Blue, who says returning to New Orleans is a grand homecoming. “Katrina was something unlike anything I’d ever experienced before,” she explains. “I didn’t evacuate right away, I didn’t think it was necessary to leave. I sat and waited and then went to bed. I wasn’t frightened, I just prayed. They [evacuation teams] took us to the convention center, then to Austin. Then I went to California where my brother lives.” Blue’s grandchildren and nephew live in New Orleans where Blue was born and raised. During her time in California, her son died and she found it difficult to adjust to the new location. When the opportunity came up for her to move back, she jumped at the chance. “I’m so excited, I can’t wait,” she exclaims. “I love New Orleans. I don’t have to have a car. Everything is so close.”
Louise Breaux, age 80, has lived her entire life in New Orleans except for her recent displacement by Katrina. When the storm hit, she refused to leave. Thinking that, at her age, she had seen the worst that life could offer, she simply did not believe that a disaster of such magnitude could hit. Ms. Breaux recalls that initially it was a beautiful day, but that soon changed as the storm rolled in. She remembers seeing the telephone poles lifted up out of the ground and then the wind blew the air conditioning unit out of the window. When she saw that a helicopter was coming to rescue her, she ran to get on it. Ms. Breaux was evacuated to Austin and then went on to Houston, always waiting to return to New Orleans.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Volunteers of America committed to create more than 1,000 units of affordable rental housing in New Orleans. In partnership with the Major League Baseball Players Trust and other major donors, Volunteers of America also established the Rental Housing Development Fund, which will be used to develop affordable rental housing in the Gulf Coast region.
Late last year, the Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corporation – a collaboration between Volunteers of America National Services and Volunteers of America Greater New Orleans – started construction on the Chateau Carre Apartments in Gentilly, a rehabilitated, mixed-income housing development with 150 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The project is being funded in part by a generous block grant from the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the Office of Community Development.
In 2007, Volunteers of America also reopened The Duvernay Residence on Canal Street, which provides 70 single-room occupancy units to people transitioning from life on the streets to permanent housing.
Founded in 1896, Volunteers of America is one of the leading human service providers in the United States and the largest nonprofit provider of affordable housing in the country. Nationally, Volunteers of America provides housing for more than 11,000 families and 8,000 senior households, and is committed to increasing the supply of permanent affordable rental housing for working families in Greater New Orleans.
