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Hard-hit Upper 9th Ward is uplifted by Habitat

10/26/2007
Leslie Williams - The Times-Picayne

On Alvar Street in the Upper 9th Ward, the landscape speaks volumes about rebuilding efforts guided by Habitat for Humanity versus those of the free market and government.

Brightly colored homes -- tangerine, powder blue, sienna and yellow -- with porches and gardens line the Habitat side of Alvar from North Roman to North Johnson streets.

On the other side stands a hodgepodge of non-Habitat homes in various states. More than two years after Hurricane Katrina, some of those homes remain neglected. Others are gutted. Repairs are under way at some. One house is new. A handful have been fully restored.

Alvar Street runs through the St. Claude neighborhood and borders the core area of Habitat's Musicians Village. The village's programmatic area -- within North Claiborne Avenue, Montegut Street, Florida Avenue and Poland Avenue -- covers about two-thirds of the St. Claude neighborhood, which has a little more than half of its housing stock back on line.

Among residents who have returned to the St. Claude neighborhood, many credit Habitat, which has received much assistance from the Baptist Crossroads Foundation, for improving the quality of life in the neighborhood.

Some property owners may have been encouraged to rebuild in the Upper 9th Ward because of Habitat's investment in their community. But the greatest impact by the nonprofit and its partners, residents said, appears to be that the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity and its partners have made the St. Claude neighborhood a nicer place to live.

Jacqueline Buggage, a long-time Alvar Street resident who spent 1 1/2 years restoring her home, likes her Habitat neighbors.

"They're all working people," she said. "It's very quiet."

"Mostly I see them on weekends. A lot are musicians," Buggage said. "So far, there are no problems. They bid you good day. They wave at you. It looks like the homes are well taken care of."

Jeanette Williams, a renter on Alvar who lives across the street from the Habitat homes, also enjoys the post-Katrina atmosphere.

"I can sit on the porch and not have to listen to that ol' rap music and cussing," Williams said.

Since Habitat began building homes in the Upper 9th Ward in April 2006, the nonprofit has invested about $7.6 million in the St. Claude neighborhood, said Jim Pate, director of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat, its sponsors, volunteer army and homebuyers have constructed 62 homes within the programmatic boundaries of the Musicians Village. Another 64 are under construction. And Habitat has spent $435,000 to acquire 29 more lots for homes it plans to build in the St. Claude neighborhood.

The new construction adds to the neighborhood's resurgence, which has lagged behind other communities in the city post-Katrina.

The St. Claude neighborhood has 53 percent of its 11,761 pre-Katrina population, said Mike Flores, vice president of the Baptist Crossroads Foundation, which teamed up with Habitat to build the homes on Alvar Street. The foundation also has provided thousands of volunteers for the affordable-housing initiative.

"I'm glad we have some more neighbors," said Cecile E. Johnson, who moved into his home on Bartholomew Street in 1969. "We lost a lot of neighbors due to Katrina."

According to a July 2007 survey, there was "no activity" regarding 29 percent of the structures in the neighborhood, Flores said. Other findings: About 4 percent of the homes were vacant; 24 percent were gutted; 39 percent were renovated and new construction represented 4 percent.

Habitat homes have been built in an area surrounded by mostly homeowners who lived in the St. Claude neighborhood pre-Katrina, said Henry Swanson Jr., who has been living on North Roman Street for 17 years.

The Habitat houses -- built on the former Kohn Junior High School site and on vacant lots throughout the neighborhood -- "didn't inspire me to fix my house," Swanson said. "The homeowners here always took good care of their property."

"But a positive effect has been that certain elements in the neighborhood are not back," he said. "You see some filtering back, but there are no incubating areas for them anymore because people's minds are on other things: rebuilding, working."

"You can't get these houses without working," said Swanson, as he looked toward the Habitat homes. "It's a different mindset, a different set of values. Before, working families (here) were often surrounded by people that didn't work."

The investment Habitat and the volunteers have made in the neighborhood "is revitalizing the upper 9th Ward," said Rene Carter, who lives at the corner of Mazant and North Johnson streets. "The new homeowners are striving to get ahead. They take better care of their property. They have a pride about it that helps uplift the property and everything around here."

Bolstering security

His wife, Catherine, even likes the way Habitat neighbors handle community events.

"When they have a little jam session, they invite us to come and say 'bring the kids,' " she said. "They're more neighborly. They're helping create a lot stronger neighborhood. People look out for each other more."

Cecile Johnson still smarts from the pre-Katrina days when more lookouts were needed.

"In a two or three year period, my home was burglarized five times," Johnson said. "I haven't been burglarized since Katrina hit."

Volunteers are around a lot, he said as he observed workers constructing a Habitat home within view of his front yard.

"Here it is 6 o'clock. And look, they're still working," Johnson said. "They work on Saturdays and Sundays too if it's not raining."

"So far, I like it; I'm glad these houses are here," said Johnson, who believes police patrol the area more since Habitat volunteers and others started working in the area and tour buses began regularly passing through.

 

Showing 'big hearts'

Johnson, Buggage, Swanson and others in the St. Claude neighborhood routinely tell stories about the kindness of Habitat-project volunteers, who have never restricted their aid and caring to Habitat homeowners.

Non-Habitat residents of the St. Claude neighborhood have plenty of stories about how volunteers came by to help with cutting the grass, removing debris or fix something.

"They have volunteers from everywhere. If it wouldn't be for the volunteers, our city wouldn't be as advanced as it is," said Buggage, who keeps a photograph of a few of them. "I never realized in life there were so many people with big hearts."

Pate said he's aware volunteers often assist non-Habitat residents.

"They (the returning neighborhood residents) also have hired our subcontractors. They come to ask where is a good place to buy materials," Pate said. "On occasion, we've loaned them tools."

 

Resource center sought

The non-Habitat property owners in the neighborhood probably could advance more quickly if there was a resource center placed in the Upper 9th Ward that could coordinate rebuilding efforts for them, Pate said. Such a resource center could provide a tool library, he said, as well a list of "qualified, local, reliable subcontractors." It could provide a comprehensive list of where to buy materials and help with insurance and Road Home issues.

New Orleans recovery chief Ed Blakely agrees.

"We've been trying to get funds from the Clinton Foundation to do that," he said.

The city's plan calls for mobile resource centers to provide this assistance by rotating through several New Orleans neighborhoods a day or two at a time, Blakely said.

Residents complain the city neglected the St. Claude neighborhood long before Katrina, specifically in terms of drainage, sidewalks and resurfacing streets.

Thanks to efforts by the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, the St. Claude neighborhood will get new streets and Alvar will be resurfaced.

The nonprofit group applied for and received a federal grant for $250,000 to resurface Alvar from North Claiborne to Galvez Street. No date has been set to begin resurfacing. And Habitat plans to spend $1.2 million to $1.5 million of its money to build new streets in the neighborhood, extending Bartholomew two blocks, from North Johnson Street to North Roman, and extending North Prieur Street from Mazant Street to Alvar Street.

"We hope to begin (constructing the streets) before the start of next year," Pate said. "The city has given preliminary approval for the project."

 

Hubs developing

Last month, Habitat officially broke ground on a $6 million Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, a two-story multipurpose facility that will provide the community with performance space, classrooms, practice space and access to computers. Neighborhood groups will be able to conduct meetings there. The center also is expected to become a hangout where student-mentor relationships develop between young and old musicians. A nearby toddler park is on the drawing board.

And there's more.

The Ruby Bridges Foundation, Habitat and the Baptist Crossroads Foundation are discussing the possibility of renovating and reopening William Frantz Elementary School -- which Bridges integrated in 1960.

In the first quarter of next year, the Idea Village plans to open a 3,000-square-foot business innovation center at North Galvez and Piety to nurture economic activity in the area by providing technical assistance to local entrepreneurs who want to start businesses.

"We plan to identify local entrepreneurs and develop a vibrant entrepreneurial community out there," said Tim Williamson, president of the nonprofit think tank.

"The St. Claude neighborhood is a work in progress," said Swanson, who daily monitors activities from his front porch.

"It's like making a gumbo," he said. "You add all the ingredients and you let it cook down to see what you get."

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Leslie Williams can be reached at lwilliams@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3358.

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