New Orleans: Christian Org. to Rebuild First Homes

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The state has begun transferring properties it bought in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, with the first of thousands waiting to be redeveloped going to an evangelical organization led by Franklin Graham.

Samaritan's Purse plans to rebuild five homes initially, and up to 50 eventually, in the Gentilly neighborhood, using donations and volunteer labor, project manager Richard Brown said Monday. The organization, which has been involved in aid work on the Gulf Coast since the August 2005 storm, took ownership of the first four Friday and plans to close on the fifth this week, he said.

The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority has been soliciting redevelopment plans, initiating expropriation cases and lining up homeowners interested in buying the lots next door to them, hoping to move the properties into commerce as quickly as possible once the transfers began.

In all, the agency, known as NORA, expects to receive about 4,450 properties the state bought from hurricane-affected homeowners who didn't want to rebuild here after the August 2005 storm and levee breaches. Many of the properties are in hard-hit areas like the Lower 9th Ward, eastern New Orleans and Gentilly.

Rob Couhig, a NORA board member, said the agency has a chance to make a "real impact" on areas blighted by derelict properties and struggling to recover or simply maintain since Katrina.

It has been reaching out to large developers, church and neighborhood groups, individuals, nonprofits and others deemed capable of redeveloping properties and getting them back into commerce, he said.

"There's nothing more destructive to a neighborhood than a vacant lot or, maybe worse, a vacant house," he said.

Samaritan's Purse plans to provide the new or rebuilt houses mortgage-free, though families would still have to pay for such things as taxes and meet income and other eligibility requirements, Brown said. About 80 applications have already been turned in, he said.

The funds are committed, and so far there's been no shortage of volunteers for the planned building work, he said.

"The importance of bringing the houses back is huge," he said. "We want to come in and be a catalyst" for blocks to come back.