As 2008 comes to a close, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity ends its 25th year having built 84 homes for families in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard Parishes.  In 2009, the affiliate plans to build an additional 100 homes throughout the metro area.  Overall in 25 years of service, New Orleans Habitat has helped over 286 families become Habitat homeowners – 185 of those just since Hurricane Katrina.
          “Our success is directly attributed to the volunteers who continue to support our efforts by coming out and working day after day,” stated Jim Pate, executive director, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity.  “Their tireless efforts give us faith and support to support our mission of building low-income housing.”
          New Orleans Habitat began 2008 welcoming hundreds of volunteers to work on the NBA All-Star Game Day of Service.  In partnership with NBA Cares and despite the rainy weather, hundreds of fans came out to build.  As a result of the project, three families recently celebrated their first Christmas in their new Habitat home in New Orleans East.  
          In May, New Orleans Habitat participated in the 25th annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project Gulf Coast with the construction of 7 blitz homes, 25 dry-ins and 25 dedication homes locally.  The one week concentrated-build welcomed over 600 volunteers who hammered, painted, sided and gave their all to complete the homes.  The Work Project is held annually in partnership with President and Mrs. Carter to call attention to the need for affordable low-income housing.  The President and Mrs. Carter visited the New Orleans worksites during the week and thank the volunteers personally.  
          “To participate and welcome the Carters to New Orleans, was truly an honor,” added Pate.  “The synergy created from such a concentrated build effort is one that stays with a volunteer for a lifetime.”
          2008 also saw great progress in Musicians’ Village in the Upper Ninth Ward with the installation of the streets that help to define the 72-single family home development.  “The streets were a huge barrier that we needed to overcome to be able to move families into the homes along Bartholomew Street,” added Pate.  “We now have 15 families living in the interior area of the Village with more scheduled to move in at the beginning of the new year.”
          The affiliate lost some time in September when the threat of Hurricane Gustav made it necessary to enact the affiliate’s evacuation plan which caused the loss of almost 4 weeks of work due to the need to prepare the worksites for the storm, evacuating personnel and then the re-establishment of the worksites to pick up where volunteers left off.  “Hurricane Gustav gave us a good dry run with our emergency planning,” stated Pate.  “Our Hurricane Katrina knowledge and subsequent planning worked when it came to having a solid game plan.”  
          In St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans Habitat continued to host overnight volunteers at Camp Hope, a premier volunteer base camp offering a safe, affordable place to stay while volunteering with local non-profits.  This effort was made possible with the tremendous assistance received from St. Bernard School Board and Parish officials.   Additionally, Habitat volunteers are working in St. Bernard Parish to build over 50 homes for elderly or disabled families who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina.  “In addition to building homes, volunteers were dispatched to local community groups to help gut homes, renovate community centers and the food bank along with working with the local children and elderly to better handle the effects of the storm,” added Pate.  
          As New Orleans Habitat prepares for 2009, we take stock in our successes of 2008:

•  New Orleans Habitat has welcomed over 24,000 volunteers accounting for over 164,000 volunteer hours.

•  84 families have received homes – average number of homes built annually pre-Katrina was 10-12.

•  The 72-family Musicians’ Village neighborhood is over 70% complete including four blocks of new roads.

•  New Orleans Habitat has distributed over 35,000 sheets of drywall to local non-profits at no cost to assist families in their rebuilding efforts.  

•  New Orleans Habitat participated in the 2008 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project and blitz built 7 homes on Law Street, dried-in 15 homes and dedicated 25 homes within a one week period.

•  New Orleans Habitat has partnered with community projects, neighborhood groups and faith-based organizations to assist in rebuilding communities across our affiliate area.

•  New Orleans Habitat has expanded its active construction areas to include St. Bernard, Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes.

          “As we welcome 2009, our staff and board remain dedicated to building low-income housing throughout the metro New Orleans area,” confirmed Pate.  “We know that we have a long road ahead of us and plan to continue by putting one family in a home at a time.”
          New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, an independent affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization.  NOAHH builds new houses in partnership with sponsors, volunteers, communities, and homeowner families to eliminate poverty housing in the New Orleans area while serving as a catalyst to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.  Since its inception in 1983 NOAHH has built over 289 new homes for low-income families in need of adequate shelter. NOAHH plans to continue to build homes in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Plaquemines Parishes.  www.habitat-nola.org