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Baptists pledge to build 300 houses in 5-year period

6/12/2007
Leslie Williams - New Orleans Times Picayune

In a partnership with the Habitat for Humanity, First Baptist Church of New Orleans launched an initiative Monday to build 300 homes in the celebrated Musicians' Village and elsewhere in the 9th Ward.

The church established the Baptist Crossroads Project to make home ownership a reality for low-income people. Crossroads has pledged to construct 60 houses each year for five years.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity has orchestrated the construction of at least eight homes in eastern New Orleans, one in Hollygrove, 38 single-family homes and a duplex for the elderly in the Musicians' Village and at least 20 more in other parts of the 9th Ward.

In a news conference in the 9th Ward, Habitat officials applauded the Baptist Crossroads Project.

"It's the single most significant commitment that we've gotten to date," said Jim Pate, director of the New Orleans affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, which has another 81 single-family homes and four duplexes for the elderly under construction in the village as well as the $5.5 million Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.

The village, not exclusively for musicians, is an area within Montegut Street and North Claiborne, Poland and Florida avenues. It's core area roughly covers an area bounded by North Johnson, Alvar, North Roman and Mazant streets as well as a block bordered by North Roman, Alvar, Derbigny and Mazant streets.

Inman Houston, director of the Baptist Crossroads Project, said he's confident volunteers can be supplied well into the future to help build the 300 homes. And Baptist Community Ministries as well as Baptist churches throughout the United States are expected to provide roughly half of the money for the more than $22.5 million initiative in the form of loans, he said.

Prior to Monday's announcement, the Crossroads Project had helped Habitat build 40 homes in New Orleans.

"Once we saw the popularity of the project and some funding became available," the five-year plan got the green light, Houston said.

David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church of New Orleans, gave birth to the Crossroads Project. He couldn't attend the ceremony Monday because he's in San Antonio at the Southern Baptist Convention, but he sent a written statement explaining that the Crossroads Project "is a response to the challenge of Jesus Christ to love our neighbors as we love ourselves."

"The strategy is simple," he continued. "Address substandard housing and poverty in our community by helping hard-working people move from renting into homeownership."

Thanks to the Crossroads Project, it's a journey a pair of 20-year-old New Orleanians will complete.

The first of the 300 homes will belong to Edward Lee, a tuba player, and Jennifer, a department store clerk. Volunteers Monday raised the first wall of their three-bedroom, one-bath, 1,100-square-foot home at the corner of Bartholomew and North Roman streets.

Lee said he initially was reluctant to take the step after his mother pitched the idea, but changed his mind after he realized the Habitat for Humanity program is an ideal way to help the flood-ravaged city rebound. Since joining the program with a "sweat equity" requirement, Lee has worked on at least 15 other Habitat homes in addition to his own.

"It's not just about me, it's about the whole city," said Lee, who professed his love for the hundreds of Baptists who have come to New Orleans to help with Habitat's building program.

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