[StBernard] Storm-damaged St. Bernard homes may be fixed, resold

[Westley Annis]

Storm-damaged St. Bernard homes may be fixed, resold
Posted by The Times-Picayune April 15, 2007 10:26PM
Categories: rebuilding
By Bob Warren
St. Bernard Bureau

St. Bernard Parish officials fear that the state's Road Home program could
eventually dump thousands of properties in the parish's lap. 

A nonprofit group has begun pitching a plan to Parish Council members that
could take some of those properties off the government's hands. 


Assisting Hand.Org, based in Salt Lake City, recently refurbished five
Hurricane Katrina-damaged homes in Violet that it says will be targeted for
sale or lease to moderate- and low-income families needing homes after the
hurricane. Representatives of the group envision the program growing to
include some of the adjudicated properties the parish might end up owning. 

"St. Bernard Parish doesn't want to be in the property-management business,"
said Evelyn Hammons, a general contractor who has been working with the
organization. "Maybe that's where we can come in and help." 

Assisting Hand is one of several nonprofit groups and for-profit companies
rebuilding homes in St. Bernard Parish, where some 27,000 structures were
flooded during Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee failures. On
Friday, for instance, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity and Camp Coastal
Outpost began construction of the first two of what eventually will be 40
homes in St. Bernard Parish by the end of June. 

Assisting Hand's pitch comes at a time when the parish has intensified
discussions about what it should do with the properties residents sell to
the state under the Road Home program. The Road Home is expected to transfer
those properties to the parish. St. Bernard officials say one thing is
certain: St. Bernard doesn't have the resources to maintain thousands of
storm-damaged homes and cannot afford to demolish them. 

Under Assisting Hand's proposal, the parish would donate the properties to
the nonprofit, which would then refurbish them and help get them back into
commerce. Any money the nonprofit makes would then be plowed back into
refurbishing more properties, said Bo Chung Jr., Assisting Hand's director
of housing. 

"Financially, we're pretty strong," Chung said one recent morning from the
kitchen of one of the homes the group refurbished on Shannon Drive in
Violet. "We have the resources to expedite things like this." 

Parish Councilman Craig Taffaro said the parish's Housing, Redevelopment and
Quality of Life Commission, which he leads, will discuss the issue this
month. 

"We're in the process of looking at how it can work," he said. If the plan
is accepted and is a success, he added, "I think we'll have several others
(nonprofits) follow suit." 

Taffaro, however, said it is unknown how many homes the parish might
eventually own, or when. 

Any plan the parish comes up with would have to be submitted to the Road
Home Corp. and the Louisiana Recovery Authority. 

Assisting Hand also has teamed with a for-profit company called Your Home
Solution to refurbish additional homes in the parish. 

Chung said he has spoken with Taffaro and Red Cross representatives about
possibly using some of the homes to house displaced residents currently
living in temporary trailer parks in St. Bernard. 

Taffaro said parish officials have recently begun talking about plans to
eventually close the trailer parks, but said no date has been set. He said
officials want to empty the parks as soon as possible, but they also need to
be certain long-term housing is available. 

Bob Warren can be reached at bwarren at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3363.