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Ron Gonzalez and Toni Wendel, president of the HBA of Greater New Orleans, in the rehabbed shotgun house that now serves as a shelter for homeless women. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the original shelter.
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By Richard Wall
Ron Gonzales, director of the New Orleans Rescue Mission, was already struggling to serve hundreds of homeless people, as well as providing single women and families with transitional housing as they got back on their feet. Then Hurricane Katrina came along and took out all three of the Mission's shelters. Two are still down and out, but the single women's dorm just came back into service this week, thanks to a coalition of local builders, national suppliers, a non-profit, and a determined crew of construction workers.
After Katrina, HomeAid, a national organization based in California that builds and renovates shelters for America's temporarily homeless, contacted the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans to see about putting together some help for the Rescue Mission. Though faced with near chaos after the storm, the HBAGNO committed to the project, and association president Toni Wendel took on general contracting duties through her Olde World Builders & Remodelers company.
Working Fast and Free
"I'm a female, we were doing a female shelter, so it seemed appropriate," says Toni. "My crew has been wonderful; there hasn't been a day since we started in February that someone from my crew hasn't been here. Some of them were even working here the day of Mardi Gras."
She jokes about it being difficult to work under Ron's conditions—fast and free. But they were able to turn the 1896 double camelback shotgun house, which was already on the rundown side before Katrina, into "a sweet little house," says Toni. "Two women who were staying here before the storm came by the other day while we were finishing up and they were dumbfounded with the change. Looking so nice, it really provides an emotional boost to the people staying here."
HomeAid organized the project, and other businesses kicked in the funding and materials. Ameriquest Mortgage Company provided all funding; Pella donated all new hurricane-proof windows; James Hardie provided siding; Georgia-Pacific contributed plywood; and the California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors provided support.
The house has several bunk-bed style bedrooms and houses 22 single women who evacuated when Katrina hit and have been living in FEMA-paid hotels or shelters in other cities. Each woman has a full time job but needs a place to stay while they try to get their former homes back in livable shape after the hurricane.
Ron's wife Diane decorated and furnished the house in a style that is much more like home than a temporary shelter. A new kitchen, lots of counter space and cabinets, comfortable bedrooms, a cozy parlor, and a family-style dinning room make it an uplifting place to be while the women are working hard to lift themselves up.
New Orleans' New Homeless Population
Ron and Diane have worked nonstop and will move quickly into their next job: building a new shelter for families and children. Katrina knocked the former shelter off its foundation and into the house next door. It was razed, and HomeAid is helping with that rebuild as well. The larger mission shelter where they served 30,000 meals a month and sheltered 200-300 people every night is closed for now, its blown-in asbestos roof creating a toxic sludge of debris inside the old mission.
"It's tough to get going again," says Ron. "We're the largest private shelter in New Orleans and like other non-profits in the area, we relied on direct mail to raise funds. But our donor base is gone—people haven't come back yet. And we just got mail the other day from October."
Since the hurricane, Ron says men and women with full-time jobs have been sleeping in their cars in the mission's lot, because they couldn't move back into their flooded homes. "That's the need we're seeing right now," says Ron. "That's going to be our focus for the next 18 to 24 months."
The single women's shelter is a fine start. Toni's crew has added new tiling, New Orleans style plasterwork, refurbished the century-old longleaf pine floors, and added other nice touches. Though it was difficult squeezing in the job among the hectic workload she and her crew were already facing after the hurricane, Toni, who still can't get around to repairing her own home's hurricane-damaged roof yet, says it's worth it.
"It is definitely a worthy cause, one that our New Orleans home builders association wanted to help with," says Toni, who adds that her mother used to shop in the area where the shelter is located. "We're going to rebuild New Orleans, and that means rebuilding it for everyone."
Richard Wall is a freelance writer in St. Augustine, Fla., and former board president of a homeless shelter.
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