The Ms. Foundation helps assure resident voices The Ms. Foundation grant helps the New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative, (NONDC) promote neighborhood diversity. This work will build resident influence over rebuilding and rezoning plans that are now being created by elected officials and appointed bodies.
“The home is a way to move a trapped segment of the population out of poverty. The home is a way to move ahead post Katrina.” Executive Director of NONDC: Una Anderson
Una’s Story Days after Una Anderson and her husband evacuated safely to their second home across Lake Pontchartrain, they were back in New Orleans taking action. Anderson heard an official on TV repeating over and over again that the city needed buses and gas to evacuate residents trapped by the rising water. The words “buses and gas” echoing in her head, Anderson realized that there was something she and her husband could do.
So they found a bus, filled it with gas and Anderson tenaciously talked their way past the blockades. As they approached the city, a state police officer told her to get in a line of 300 buses. She responded that she was not going to wait in line because people needed help. The officer proceeded to ask for her FEMA paperwork. Once again, she insisted on going in. Finally the officer relented, saying, “You won’t have an escort, but I’ll turn the other way,” and he literally turned his head the other way and told them to deliver the people they picked up to the airport.
Anderson and her husband collected 60 people under the interstate bridge at Causeway and I-10. When they tried to drop people off at the airport, however, they were waved away by a man with an M-16. Driving through nearby Kenner, another police officer was so intent on her not leaving passengers in his suburban community that he personally escorted them to the interstate.
Ultimately, Anderson offered the group shelter in her sister’s church north of Baton Rouge. Along the way, a man on the bus cried out “God is good!” And, Anderson said, “Every single person responded in chorus ‘All the time!’” Anderson continued, “After all these people had been through—sitting out in the sun, taking boats, leaving animals and people they cared about—each one was hopeful. We have a great capacity for resiliency, which is good, but it means that we tolerate a lot.”
NONDC: Building Homes in the Wake of Katrina Give Una Anderson three or four weeks, and she’ll give you an affordable house, complete with architectural touches that make it distinctively New Orleans. Modular homes are just one part of the New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative’s (NONDC) strategy to produce quality, affordable housing. The NONDC is a coalition of non-profit, private, and public community-based organizations created in 1996 to work collectively with neighborhoods throughout New Orleans. NONDC's mission is to reenergize the social, physical, political, and economic landscapes of New Orleans. They work to expand the production of quality, affordable housing and advocate for improved housing policies.
Soon after her aforementioned rescue mission, Anderson set up a NONDC office in Baton Rouge, though the staff of five was scattered around the country. All but one, who left permanently, returned to work. Anderson posed the question to her staff, “What addresses this that is real?” The answer, it turned out, were homes. They sold their first post Katrina home five months after the storm to a mother of two who works at the Winn Dixie grocery store. She was living in substandard rental property next door to what would eventually be her new home. NONDC is now trying to buy, renovate and re-sell the substandard property.
Staff reviewed data (including demographics, home ownership, and vacant lots) for ten neighborhoods and determined that an area known as Central City would be the best place to start Post Katrina. Not far from the gracious homes and aged oak trees of St. Charles Avenue and the Garden District, this perennially blighted area is certain to be within the footprint of the city. Anderson calls it “a challenging and wonderful neighborhood that is very driven by its residents.” Before Katrina the neighborhood’s residents had created a plan that included a resident driven organization called “The Central City Renaissance Alliance.” This group has led the charge since Katrina.
