BACKGROUND:

Because of systematic political and economic neglect as well as the threat of rampant disenfranchisement, New Orleans’ working class and poor communities are in dire need of immediate support in their rebuilding efforts.

The vast delays on insurance policy pay-outs and the foot-dragging bureaucracy that mires the Federal Disaster Fund (Road Home) grants result in residents’ inability to repair and/or rebuild their homes.

The City has implemented a so-called “Good Neighbor Plan” that directs its health department to condemn private properties that have yet to be repaired or rebuilt, setting into motion a process leading to the “expropriation” of such lands by the New Orleans Redevelopment Agency (N.O.R.A.).

Residents are losing their homes at an alarming rate because of lack of financial and material resources. Additionally, many of those who wish to repair/rebuild their homes are displaced residents, evacuees scattered in over forty states.

Common Ground has recently launched a community adoption project that will assist these residents in obtaining desperately needed financial and material resources. This program will also make contributed skilled labor available to those who wish to rebuild.

We are reaching out to national and international communities to encourage them to “Adopt” a Home, a School, a Church, a block of Houses for repair or reconstruction.

YOU CAN HELP BY IMPLEMENTING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS:

1. Purchasing, at wholesale, as well as shipping building supplies and materials for a particular structure, i.e. sheet rock, plywood, paint, bricks, sidings, paint, doors, etc.

2. Opening up a local account at a Home Depot or Lowe’s, so that Common Ground can obtain the materials & supplies for this structure.

3. Sending a group of skilled professionals, such as carpenters, painters, plumbers, electricians, dry wallers, etc. to repair and/or rebuild a home, church, or school. Common Ground will provide room and board for these volunteers for the length of their stay.

4. Financing a local group of young, newly trained building apprentices, supervised by journeymen builders, in their endeavors to repair local homes, schools, and churches.

We want to encourage individuals, groups, organizations, faith based entities, financial institutions, businesses, affluent schools/churches, etc. to consider sponsorships. Each sponsor will receive a “before” and “after” photograph of the facility and/or lot, along with a map and short biography of the property and its proprietor(s).

We at Common Ground appreciate your consideration in this very urgent campaign to save some of New Orleans’ oldest and most historically significant communities, and to help them survive and thrive once again.

You can Contact Common Ground at:

Common Ground Relief

P.O. Box 6128
New Orleans, LA 70174

504.368.6897

504.483.2145

504.583.0750

sharonjohn1 (at) yahoo.com

sakkone (at) gmail.com

marina (at) communityfuturescollective.org