Habitat New Orleans

Habitat for Humanity was pretty well known before Katrina thanks to the participation of former president Jimmy Carter. After the storm, as the government's response floundered, they became the organization that was getting things done and grew exponentially. But they also realized that they needed to make some adjustments. So while Katrina led to dramatic growth, it also changed the organization in some significant ways.

Habitat was always and remains a faith-based organization. They welcome all people of all beliefs but their original program was confined to two-parent families. This was not going to fly. Single parent families make up enough of the population of the city that it was going to create far more problems than it solved in determining who got a house and who didn't. The other difference was land. Many people who lost their homes still had their land so that had to be taken into account when figuring out which sites to build one, how to make them work and what the financial package was going to look like.

Habitat has always been good at creating payment plans that are fair, that give the homeowner a stake in their house and cut out enough of the expense to be affordable. This is what made them as effective as they are and it's why their model has been duplicated successfully in so many places. It also helped that they had a well established chapter in New Orleans before Katrina which helped them navigate some of the trickier parts of the recovery.