Healthy Rebuilding Demonstration in New Orleans

Project Funders: Enterprise Community Partners, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Home Depot Foundation

Project Partners: Enterprise Community Partners, Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans, Community Development Fund, Columbia University, and Tulane University

Project Contact: Jonathan Wilson, jwilson@nchh.org, 443.539.4162

Project Description

This demonstration project  provided critical information about the cost of and best approaches for decontaminating homes that were damaged by flooding from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The project team selected three homes, owned by low- or moderate-income families, that experienced between two to six feet of water above the first floor. NCHH supervised the health aspects of the program, including before-and-after environmental testing, worker protection issues, and documentation of the costs and procedures. A committee of healthy housing experts and scientists provided advice regarding the demolition, decontamination, and worker protection approaches to be used by the project team. Following the completion of the demonstration, the project team published a “how-to” guide (Creating a Healthy Home: A Field Guide for Clean-Up of Flooded Homes) and a video (Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Area Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina) for the contractors, community-based housing organizations, homeowners, and tradespeople involved in cleanup and rebuilding efforts.

Resources

A Field Guide for Flooded Home Cleanup [pdf; 2019] [Replaces Creating a Healthy Home: A Field Guide for Clean-up of Flooded Homes]

Guía Práctica para la Limpieza del Hogar Inundado [pdf; 2019] [Replaces Crear un Hogar Saludable – Guía Práctica para la Limpieza de Hogares Inundados]

Healthy Rebuilding in New Orleans [ppt/pdf]

Case Study ― Gentilly Neighborhood in New Orleans

NCHH/AFHH Hurricane Aftermath Fact Sheets

Links to Other Information Sources:

Mold Cleanup Guidance DVD 
This DVD is the first known audiovisual instructional tool produced to train volunteers, small contractors, and individual homeowners about cleaning up flooded homes in communities affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Ray Lopez of LSA Family Health Service, Inc., narrates the DVD, which was developed with substantial technical involvement from Bill Sothern of Microelogies, Inc., NCHH, and its team of technical advisors. Funding was provided for the development and production of the video from an Arnold P. Gold Foundation grant through Columbia University, a HUD Healthy Homes grant to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to Enterprise Community Partners. This video may be played on your computer using the following formats: Windows Media Video files (.wmv) and QuickTime files (.mov). If you have a dial-up connection, it is not recommended downloading these files. The video may be downloaded in its entirety (for faster computers) or downloaded one chapter at a time.

Press Releases

 

Latest page update: February 16, 2022.