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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBrad Pitt built dozens of homes in New Orleans after Katrina. Now they're falling apart...
...and residents are suing.
NEW ORLEANS Kamaria Allen had no plans to return to the Lower 9th Ward after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina. But then she saw the new houses.
Billed as flood-safe and futuristic, the Make It Right homes towered over vacant lots in pops of teal, lemon and lavender. Houses like that just didnt exist in the working-class, mostly black section of New Orleans that Allens family had called home for four generations and definitely not for $130,000.
I called it my Mardi Gras float, Allen says of 1826 Reynes Street, the roof deck-topped home that now sits abandoned mushrooms growing from its split siding, wooden boards propping up its sagging roof. Allen bought the house in 2011 from the Make It Right Foundation, a charity formed by Brad Pitt to help Lower 9th Ward residents return home after the hurricane.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/brad-pitt-built-dozens-homes-new-orleans-after-katrina-now-n908651
WhiteTara
(29,723 posts)Hollywood props. Too bad for the people. I would hope they have insurance.
maxsolomon
(33,408 posts)its one of the reasons he got involved.
WhiteTara
(29,723 posts)sandensea
(21,676 posts)That may have worked in his acting career - but certainly not here.
dhol82
(9,353 posts)nolabear
(41,991 posts)I saw those places while and after they were built. They looked funny but nice. I wonder if they used the cheap Chinese drywall and steel that screwed so much reconstruction.
*sigh*
maxsolomon
(33,408 posts)Its the detailing and/or the workmanship. Moisture got in.
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)appleannie1943
(1,303 posts)OnDoutside
(19,974 posts)brer cat
(24,618 posts)kind of like crime scene tape. I'm not at all sure someone is living there based on that photo.
joshcryer
(62,277 posts)maxsolomon
(33,408 posts)Sagging roof is under-engineered or rotting.
Mushrooms growing out of the siding is definitely rot.
It's quite likely that details intended to control moisture (from both inside and outside the home) didn't exist, were skipped or done improperly.
In a humid climate, that's going to bite you in the ass fast.
onethatcares
(16,189 posts)good rough equals a good finish.
Nowadays contractors are using osb sheathing over studs and if the osb gets wet prior to dry in it becomes a sponge. Hell, they use it on roofs here in west central floriduh and sometimes the roofs sit for two weeks prior to stick um covering.
It's all in the name of cost cutting and maximizing profit. That and workers that don't really understand flashings and waterproofing.
That's just my overview after 45 years in the industry.
Demovictory9
(32,475 posts)kacekwl
(7,022 posts)can't believe he would knowingly build lousy homes on purpose. We'll see I guess.
VOX
(22,976 posts)And not simply to avoid a publicity "black eye." His Make It Right Foundation is doing some good. Check here: http://makeitright.org/
If anything was built in a slipshod or substandard fashion, I have faith it'll be taken care of.