NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Katrina may have happened 17 years ago, but some people still live with daily reminders of the storm. Even after the flood waters drained, one home hasn't been touched, according to the next door neighbor.
"We had water about here," Warren Mitchell said as he pointed halfway up his garage.
Katrina flooded his home on Beekman Road in New Orleans East.
"I had to gut it out, totally gut it out, re-did," he said.
Mitchell's home needed a lot of work. So did his next door neighbor's. It still does.
"All this fell apart," he said, pointing to his neighbor's home.
According to Mitchell, the woman who lived there died shortly after Katrina and no one ever came back.
"Her house right here has never been touched since Katrina, never been gutted out. Her furniture is still in there," Mitchell said.
He wants the home demolished.
"It's taking the value down of our property and it's an eye sore and I have grandkids. I have to keep them from coming over here and the other thing I'm worried about is someone could go in there and start a fire," Mitchell said.
According to the City of New Orleans, the city imposed a Code Enforcement judgment in 2015 on the Beekman Road home and is initiating a new Code Enforcement case based on a recent 311 complaint received on Nov. 8, 2022.
The property is adjudicated to the City of New Orleans, meaning that the property is tax delinquent for a number of years; thus, while it is still owned by the owner on record, it is subject to being sold at auction by the City.
That's likely what happened in Hollygrove earlier this year, when three vacant homes burned down. Neighbors on Eagle Street had been reporting the properties for years. The NOFD said vagrants were likely to blame.
"They never boarded up since Katrina. You always had people going in and out of them so something like this was bound to happen," a neighbor, Preston Hunter, said in May.
After the homes burned, the City of New Orleans said they then posed an imminent danger and met conditions for emergency demolition. The homes were knocked down the next week and the lots are now empty.
Progress, but slow progress
There is still a home next to those lots that neighbors say has been empty and abandoned since Katrina too.
"You multiply that by 30, 40, 50,000 or more pieces of property, we have to find a way to grow this town, incentivize investment and get more people here so vacant homes and vacant lots become a place someone builds, lives or runs their business because ultimately that's the answer," said New Orleans City Councilmember Oliver Thomas.
Thomas said he understands the frustration and wants to see progress too, but these are just a few of thousands of abandoned properties across the city.
"This is what I think a lot of people forget, New Orleans used to have 640,000 people who lived in the city now the city only has 391,000 people," Thomas said. "There's still more vacant lots and more blight than there are people to clean it up. That's math."
The City of New Orleans is not completely ignoring the issue. So far this year, 67 demolitions have occurred. That includes a blighted La Quinta Inn in New Orleans East.
"No longer is our city the nation's capital, I would say, for blight," Mayor LaToya Cantrell said last month.
Just over the next two months, code enforcement is scheduled to hold more than 130 hearings on blighted properties, according to their website.
In the Upper Ninth Ward, an abandoned home was demolished next to Michelle Broomfield's home.
"The roof actually fell on the ground and when the house started leaning is when I finally got in touch with someone to knock it down," Broomfield said.
That was a decade ago, but the empty lot didn't stay empty for long.
"It was a cute little shrub at first but it grew and grew," Broomfield said.
A shrub turned into a large tree that she said damaged her roof in hurricanes Zeta and Ida.
"Nobody can really touch it because it's a private lot and I was told if I cut it, I could be fined for it," Broomfield said.
'Mow to Own'
While that lot may not qualify, the city has initiatives to try and clean up overgrown lots including the 'Mow to Own’ program that started in 2021. It gives those who live next to a vacant lot first dibs to own it if they mow it.
"One of the things that I think we need to be more intentional about is properties that are affecting residential neighborhoods that are still viable or properties that are affecting commercial and business growth. We need to be more intentional to make sure those properties don't drag down the rest of the neighborhood," Thomas said.
So residents like Mitchell can feel proud to have their grandkids over to play.
"It would mean a lot to me," Mitchell said, hoping the home will be demolished. "I can take care of the yard. Yea, I'd be happy. Right now I'm just tired of it."
To report a blighted or abandoned home, call 311 to submit a complaint to code enforcement. Pictures help and if you believe it poses an imminent danger like a collapsing wall, include that in your report and it could speed up the process. Thomas also encourages emailing your city council member.
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