Brad Pitt's First "Make It Right" Homes Completed

NEW ORLEANS — The first homes in Brad Pitt's Make It Right rebuilding project are complete, and some three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, 68-year-old grandmother Gloria Guy was on hand to give the actor a big hug.

Pitt, his partner Angelina Jolie and their family of six children privately toured the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward district earlier this week. The celebrity couple bought a home in New Orleans about a year after Katrina struck and became involved in launching the project to help rebuild the city's hardest-hit neighborhood.

"I thank God for Brad Pitt," Guy said Thursday when reporters viewed the first six homes Pitt and family visited Monday and Tuesday. "I told him how much I appreciate all that he's done for me and my family."

Guy is moving into one of the first of some 150 Make It Right homes planned for a district where levees crumbled after Katrina, unleashing floodwaters that knocked previous homes off their foundations. Her new home sits atop eight-foot concrete pilings amid empty, grassy lots where some steps lead into thin air _ where houses once stood.

The replacement homes cost an average $150,000 each and are for residents who still own their property and can pay insurance and taxes. Their monthly house payments will be based on applicants' income and subsidized by funds raised by Pitt's foundation.

Nearby, 72-year-old resident Gertrude LeBlanc relaxed on a porch swing as dozens of journalists swarmed about.

She was one of the first back after Katrina and said her neighborhood had been a lonely place for too long.

"I've waited a long time for my neighbors to start coming home," she said, noting fewer than a third of the neighbors have moved back.

While the Make It Right homes boast more contemporary designs than the Creole cottages and shotgun-style homes typical of New Orleans, planners said they hoped the new homes with their solar panels and energy-saving appliances will catch on in the city as New Orleans continues to rebuild.

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On the Net:

Make It Right, http://www.makeitrightnola.org

Comments

[blastit]

I love you Brad, now thats what I call really helping people and affecting lives in a very real tangible longterm postive way

[Raiderfan0524]

Could someone please read this man's post? He's going to lose his freakin' mind otherwise!

[QueenVictoria]

Amazing architecture went into the making of these brave new homes. If I could Knight an American-
I would Knight Brad Pitt.

[MissingAmerica]

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are an amazing couple. They were okay apart, but together they seem to bring out the best in each other. We need more people like them!

[Jonahson]

Good for Brad. Angelina has the most positive influence on him. She showed him how to care for others.

[gr8abz]

I think Brad is a great person to do this. I just cannot understand how his wife can be so reticent to endorse Obama???

[Mattie]

you can be a good person and not endorse Obama, they actually have good people in other countries, who don't vote in our elections. The two aren't mutually exclusive. Perhaps she feels her vote is private, perhaps she doesn't plan on voting for him, perhaps she's going third party, or she may love the guy, what difference does it make. You can vote for who you want without her approval, you have Oprah's why don't you just go with that if you need confirmation you are doing the right thing.

[QueenVictoria]

You know, You are all good people...and inside your hearts ...you already know this.

There isn't an Obama or an Oprah or an Allah or a Buddhah or a Messiah or a Moses or Jesus who can tell you this better than you can tell it to yourselves.

[neurologymatters]

Thank you to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for showing all of us can make a difference. Your children will carry on your legacy. No photo-ops-very classy. Show the government it is possible.

[Freddiejr]

One Hand Giveth While The Other Taketh Away
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/us/12incentives.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[andvoodoo2]

Thank you Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie for all of the wonderful things you have done for my beautiful city of New Orleans! We will always be grateful to you. We New Orleanians are a fiercely loyal bunch and you will always be considered our own!

[strangerinthenight]

Voodoo - I was in New Orleans last on business to audit claim files. My first time and was shaking my head. I can't imagine the determination of New Orleanians.

'am just glad there are people like Brad Pitt who have the finances, heart and soul to help out. Your city is still beautiful and more so because its citizen just refuse to give up.

[andvoodoo2]

(I hope you eventually read this)

Thank you for your kind words! Now, please come back to New Orleans when you have a chance to play! Mardi Gras is nice and Jazz Fest is wonderful! There's always something going on in New Orleans!

[paganmist]

I notice jealousy rearing its ugly head again. Some folks really can't stand it when these two do something good for people.

[buggedabouttheus]

I like the style. The 9th ward is a place of beautiful land. The Pitt homes are placed on a formerly oak tree lined street. Maybe the trees will be replaced too. Most of the houses in the 9th ward were held without mortgage because the workers who built them many years ago paid for them fully. Those workers held jobs as longshoremen or were factory workers with Kaiser-Aluminum, and the coffee and bakery plants. These were jobs that provided a living wage for hard work. The economic fortunes turned when Kaiser left, shipping became containerized and hourly workers wages either stagnated or plummeted at the remaining few plants.

All of this is to say that rebuilding has a cost that was not there before...mortgages. It is good to see that Pitt will help supplement the retirement of the mortgages. What a shock to go from paying only for taxes and insurance to adding a mortgage when you are retired.

[SlippingInTheDip]

Why no pics of Brad, Angie, and the PuPs, who you say toured the 9th ward?

[andvoodoo2]

Because they know it's not about them, it's about the homes.

[Swerinjer]

I don't buy it. It SEEMS good on the surface but what about the details? In this repugnant age of lip service it would be foolish to simply accept this at face value. I WANT TO KNOW THE DETAILS. I'd be very interested if Naomi Klein does a little digging into this story.

[paganmist]

Of course you don't buy it. The idea of someone doing something nice for nothing in return really doesn't penetrate the hearts/minds of people who are hopelessly cynical.

Anyhow, this story has been out for a while. Pitt/Jolie lived there for a year helping with cleanup, and his founded a charity designed to rebuild houses for the people who were displaced.

[andvoodoo2]

I LIVE in New Orleans and it's REAL. If you want "details", why don't you use your computer for something useful and LOOK IT UP!

[blastit]

have you ever even heard of Brad Pitt's foundation make it R ight , I'm proud to say that I've given to his charity and will continue to do so he is really helping people not just giving them a hand out but really helping people

[stayinsouth1981]

Thank you to anyone who donated money, time or goods to the people of LA and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We/they appreciate your efforts. There are no words to describe the joy and love I felt seeing trailers, buses, vans, and tractor trailers full of donated items and people willing to help. Thank you.

[Swerinjer]

How about people who came in and sold disaster supplies like water or food for a profit?.....or housing?

[progressivelady]

that is very nice of you Brad, for doiing good for other's, something that this admin. lacked, you are truly a good person you must be Progressive.and you have such a beautiful family.

[Swerinjer]

It would have been very nice if he GAVE those houses to previous residents. Is he charging higher rent? He does look like one of those sleazy landlord types.

[andvoodoo2]

Did you even read the article?