NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – As we approach the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we’re telling the story of people’s journeys as they go forward.
Imagine if that journey involved a 10-year struggle to get in your home? That’s what we found with the Joseph family in the Lower 9th Ward.
“The biggest block was hazard mitigation. It took us from 2005 to 2009 in order to get a permit just to rebuild the house, and I had to get engineers and contractors and inspectors to come out to deem the house, suitable to rebuild,” says Errol Joseph.
Read more about how New Orleans is rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina
It turns out that was only the start of Joseph’s issues. He’s a licensed contractor, but at the time wasn’t allowed by law to do the work on his own property. That started a host of delays and the runaround from state.
Joseph recalls, “My house sat dormant from March of 2009 to March of 2013. The only reason why we were able to start work in 2013 is because we did the article in the New York Times, then we started getting friendly calls (from the state).”
That spurned some activity but not a solution to getting home, but they’ve had help along the way from the grassroots organization lowernine.org and volunteers from around the world.
Laura Paul is Executive Director and she says theirs is a special case, “They have been trying like heck to get back in this house for the better part of a decade as a lot of people have. And we’ve been fighting that fight alongside them. I’ve attended a lot of meetings with Errol, personally and spending a lot of time with him and Esther. Just trying to get settlement money together, trying to get the Road Home program to do right by them, and finally, just recently, about 8 months ago start really in earnest working on this house.”
The money the Josephs received wouldn’t come close to building a house today, but an army of volunteers from around the world have worked on the house. Joseph is semi-retired and spends his days alongside that army, often imparting decades of building knowledge and life lessons as well.
Joseph says, “On Monday when they come, they’re apprehensive about everything. Tuesday and Wednesday, man, they’re family. I think you can see that around here now. Thursday and Friday are crying days. They’re crying because they have to go back, and we’re crying because they’re leaving us.”
He calls working on his house a ministry. It’s a ministry that’s fulfilling to his family for obvious reasons, but also fulfilling to the volunteers we spoke to.
According to volunteer Chiara Azzaretti, “I think we’ve all gotten — like everyone that’s worked on this house has gotten really, really attached to it. Felt like a huge victory when we finally got the drywall finish done, and it’s really cool to see progress.”