NEW ORLEANS — They say home is where the heart is, especially when it's built with love.
Mr. Anthony (Mitchell) on St. Anthony in the Seventh Ward is getting a new place to live.
His house needed to be torn down after recent storms damaged it beyond repair.
Thursday, a team of volunteers showed up to start building him a new one.
“I see this stuff happening around the city, but I never thought I would be a recipient,” Mr. Anthony said. “This is great. I look at these people here and they’re giving. They want to do what they’re doing.”
The 76-year-old New Orleans Navy veteran is getting the home, free of charge as part of a partnership between Rebuilding Together and Habitat for Humanity.
“We make home repairs for low-income homeowners every day of the year,” William Stoudt, Rebuilding Together’s Executive Director. “But in November we focus on our veterans. They’ve given so much to our community.”
“We just want to support all the people who have fought so hard for us and worked so hard for us in any way we can, Bradley Holland from Habitat for Humanity said.
Home Depot employees from as far away as Biloxi, Mississippi spent the day framing Mr. Anthony’s home.
“It’s completely, 100 percent volunteer and that’s the beauty of it,” Team Home Depot Captain Katie Klingler said. “It’s giving back, and people really have a lot of heart. They put a lot of it into these events.”
Another Navy vet on Tennessee Street in the Lower Ninth Ward is getting a new roof as part of Rebuilding Together’s Rebuilder Month.
Theodore Watson called the generosity a blessing.
“Times are hard,” Watson said. “Things that we normally want to do, we can’t do by ourselves sometimes.”
Back on St. Anthony, Mr. Anthony is now expected to be in his new home in time for the Super Bowl here in New Orleans.
“(I’m going to) Sit there looking at the Super Bowl and just look at the game and enjoy my home,” he said.
The Rebuilder Month homes are being built and repaired using a gold-fortified standard.
That means it will be impact- and wind-resistant and much less likely to be damaged during a storm.
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