Specialties
lowernine.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization rebuilding homes in the Lower Ninth Ward that were rendered uninhabitable by Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing levee breaches in 2005.
lowernine.org offers neighborhood tours! Come learn about this historic community and its recovery with a staff guide - stops include the Mississippi River Levee and Steamship Houses, Fats Domino's House, and one of our open work sites, where you can meet volunters hard at work rebuilding. Tours are offered in exchange for a tax-deductible donation to the organization, and all proceeds go directly to rebuilding homes in the Lower Ninth Ward.
History
Established in 2007.
lowernine.org was founded as a long-term disaster recovery organization post-Katrina to address the needs of the Lower Ninth Ward as it recovered from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As of the 2010 Census, population return in the neighborhood was only 24%, and 100% of residential properties here were rendered uninhabitable when the levees breached. To date, we have rebuilt over sixty homes, and completed smaller projects on over one hundred more. It is our pleasure and privilege to serve this historic community - one whose recovery has been slowed by many obstacles, including black mold, toxic FEMA trailers, discriminatory recovery programs, the BP oil spill, and Chinese sheetrock.
Conservative estimates have the recovery of this community taking another decade, and studies suggest that low-wealth neighborhoods take approximately three times longer to recover from disaster. Disasters may not discriminate, but recoveries do. We're here to hep.
Meet the Manager: Darren M.
Darren, a Lower Ninth Ward resident born and raised, has been helping the neighborhood recover since Katrina and the 2005 levee breaches. He is one of our skilled volunteer crew leaders, and puts groups to work rebuilding the homes of his friends and neighbors.
