Restoring the Soul of New Orleans
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:13AM 
By Matt Brown
I linked arms with thirty volunteers this past April for a week long mission trip to New Orleans, LA and came away with a small education in community revitalization, a renewed sense of hope, and a desire to share what I learned, something I believe could be applied in Western New York and cities across America. Our team of thirty was sent out April 10 from Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church in Clarence with a mission to help continue to restore the spirit and soul of New Orleans after Katrina, a city that 5 years later is beginning to glimmer with hope again.
We teamed up with the Annunciation Mission, a church enabling groups of volunteers to serve in New Orleans by providing room and board while they are in town and The Salvation Army who is taking the lead in long term sustainable redevelopment of the city, one home at a time.
The Broadmoor Neighborhood
The Annunciation Mission and The Salvation Army sit across the neutral ground (median) from each other in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. Broadmoor, four miles from downtown New Orleans has the same breakdown racially and socio-economically as the City of New Orleans with incomes ranging from $15,000 to six figures. Following the disaster, Broadmoor, along with several other hard-hit neighborhoods, were marked for demolition in order to be turned into parks and green space. The Broadmoor community leaders, however, set up a tent on the neutral ground and rallied together to resist the planned leveling of their neighborhood. Expecting about 40 people to show up, 400 people came with many driving overnight determined to save their neighborhood. Residents, both black and white, rich and poor, pulled together to rebuild and today they are back to 85% restored. The recovery effort in Broadmoor is now ahead of many other neighborhoods that weren't threatened for demolition. This happened because the people did not pull out, but stayed and worked together, making a better rebuilding process and a better community. Into this context we arrived with hopes to serve, help, and learn.
The Annunciation Mission, led by Director Duane Nettles was home base during our stay. The Mission is a cross-denominational Christian ministry that welcomes and hosts teams of volunteers to the Broadmoor neighborhood and the City of New Orleans. Nettles shared how the church was tested and strengthened after Katrina and how the storm served to awaken the congregation to the needs in the community. In the midst of the chaos and pain, little by little Nettles and his team began seeing good come out of such a devastating event. While the majority of our volunteers worked with The Salvation Army, a group stayed on campus to work on the Mission’s new community center and coffee house doing plumbing, framing, drywall, landscaping and other small projects.
Housing Initiatives
The Salvation Army's Emotional and Spiritual Care Program led by Captain Ethan Frizzel, area commander, visited approximately 8,000 households in New Orleans since the hurricane and were able to give $25 million in furniture to people willing and able to return home, and $10,000-20,000 in grant monies for rebuilding allocated according to individuals and families’ vulnerability. The Salvation Army has been working with sixty rebuilding agencies rebuilding and inspecting homes that were reconstructed in the Katrina aftermath. During this process they began noticing what they referred to as a three-sided home. What happened was rebuild agencies started working on each home with a certain budget of time and money and they weren't always able to finish a house so unfortunately, despite good intentions, they were not always able to complete every home. Homeowners were left with three sides of their house done well and the back of the home might have tar paper covering the outside resulting in high utility costs, and less resources to devote to rebuilding their lives. This is where we fit in. Our job was to come along side these homeowners, assess their situation and help come up with a solution, something that proved to be both rewarding and challenging, more on this in a minute. I want to first introduce you to the initiatives we had the opportunity to be a part of.
It was very difficult for many people to return due to the housing crisis that followed the storm. The Salvation Army decided that if they were going to help someone get a home or rebuild their current home, they would not just confirm they were in need but they made sure they could support the home. One of the ways to make homes sustainable is to reduce their energy costs through energy efficiency. In response The Salvation Army created the enviRenew initiative to establish a replicable model for affordable housing while at the same time establishing community capacity so that New Orleans communities can grow even stronger than before. EnviRenew targeted 5 out of 72 neighborhoods to become recipients of funds to be pushed out specifically through community organizations, because they believe community organizations better understand what their neighborhoods need. There are four programs that are being implemented in the chosen neighborhoods.
- New Home Construction EnviRenew’s hallmark new home construction program aims to tackle the affordable housing issue facing New Orleans head on. EnviRenew seeks to leverage strategic community partnerships to help build 125 green homes for teachers, fireman, police officers, and other community capacity builders.
- Green Home Sustainability The EnviRenew Green Home Sustainability (GHS) Program enhances an individual’s quality of life by reducing their occupancy costs. Through energy-efficient home upgrades, residents save money, enabling them to spend energy savings on goods and services with greater value.
- Solar Grants Recognizing the need to combat the issue of long-term affordability for homeowners from multiple angles, EnviRenew has developed a pilot solar thermal grant program targeted at 125 existing homes within the EnviRenew Green Renew Zones. When delivered in combination with the new home program, EnviRenew will reduce occupancy costs in 250 homes resulting from solar thermal installation grants.
- EcoBasket The EcoBaskets aim to further fulfill the EnviRenew mission of improving homeowner sustainability in two critical ways: the first is to reduce occupancy costs through small green home improvements thereby preserving long-term affordability. The second is to foster a sense of an EcoCommunity within each neighborhood, where residents can become engaged and invested in the process of developing sustainable home improvement options in their own neighborhoods.
Applying Energy Efficiency
The EcoBasket program is what our group focused on. We split into several groups and met with homeowners in the Broadmoor neighborhood to perform an assessment of their home. Listening to the homeowner was an important part of these assessments. We also looked with regards to insulation, water use, energy efficiency and quality of life products and services. Often the homeowner would explain what is and is not working right in their homes. The EcoBasket program allowed us to select up to $500 of energy efficient and quality of life products based on our assessment and from listening to the homeowner. If an EcoBasket was the best program for them, we proceeded with making the appropriate energy efficient repairs and upgrades. Some of the more common items used were weather stripping, door sweeps, sealant, digital thermostats and green cleaning products. Many in our group commented on how a program like this could work back home in Buffalo.
“In this process we continue to make improvements. And the reason we continue to make improvements is because we believe there needs to be a higher standard of restoration. As more than 45% of our homes were damaged in Katrina, and as a large portion have been reestablished by well meaning volunteers and church groups, we realize we need to put into place practices that will take energy efficiency, sustainability, community capacity, which just simply means we value the person in the home, into effect at the beginning instead of at the end.” - Captain Ethan Frizzel
The work we did that week, and the information and feedback we gave, is helping The Salvation Army share and integrate it in a way so it will become replicable not only in New Orleans but throughout the country. Their hope is that these processes can be replicable and people will accept them as a better standard for rebuilding.
Building Communities and Relationship
Captain Frizzel presented a challenge to us at the beginning of the week. “Do we want to do this as missionary tourists, or do we want to do this as kingdom builders that build communities and build relationships?” One of the privileges we had was to share God’s word through daily devotions, the time we spent with the homeowners, and Friday night during a special service at The Salvation Army. While the work was not what we had expected, we did it because it’s what we were asked to do. This is the same with God's calling. When God tells us to do something, we might not always understand it fully, but we do it because He asked us to. Our group didn't finish the community center, we didn't even complete all of the EcoBaskets we set out to do, yet I know that our team made a difference. I went from thinking this wasn't the work I wanted to do, to understanding the work I was called to do was beyond my ability to complete. In New Orleans, I learned the power of one. I learned that my work mattered to God, to the home owners, and to myself. I was sent there for a reason and a purpose and I want to share the work and vision with others so together we can continue rebuilding lives, one person, one home, one neighborhood, one community, and one city at a time.
Links:
Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church
Annunciation Mission
The Salvation Army
enviRenew
Green Light New Orleans