Share
RSS
On the Gulf Coast, Recovery = Opportunity
Episcopal Relief & Development’s long-term recovery assistance to natural disaster survivors is designed not to restore their old life, but to empower them to build a better life than before. Nowhere is this more evident than in Episcopal Relief & Development’s current work with individuals and communities hard hit by Hurricane Katrina.
This approach is based on the harsh reality that most victims of natural disasters are people stuck at the bottom of the economic ladder. In Hurricane Katrina, the poorest communities were located on the lowest-lying ground and suffered the worst flood damage. (Similarly, Haiti’s poverty meant that most of its homes and buildings were not built to withstand earthquakes, resulting in countless deaths and mass homelessness.) Empowering disaster survivors to gain economic self-sufficiency not only helps them heal; it creates opportunity, redresses past injustices, and makes them less vulnerable to future natural disasters.
This is the goal of the Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative, a neighborhood-based non-profit established by Episcopal Relief & Development and the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, which is building 500 quality, affordable homes for low-income families in the Center City neighborhood of New Orleans.
Jericho Road promotes homeownership in order to build assets among people who were not previously able to accumulate wealth. With training and support, those left homeless by Katrina receive the tools they need to purchase and maintain their homes, while an entire neighborhood becomes more stable, livable and vibrant.
Fulfilling the vision of Bishop Charles Jenkins of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, Jericho Road embodies a holistic approach with neighborhood organizers working to build their community, children’s programs, an annual “Night Out Against Crime,” and initiatives to create new economic opportunities for residents.
Similarly, Hallelujah Housing, a partnership between Episcopal Relief & Development and the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, is helping families in three Mississippi Gulf Coast counties who do not have enough funds to repair their damaged homes or build new homes. The project provides gap funding enabling them to become or remain homeowners and put a solid roof over their heads, while doing so in a strategic way that rebuilds clusters of communities within each county to create newly thriving neighborhoods.
These and other ongoing recovery efforts supported by Episcopal Relief & Development address the underlying socioeconomic causes that placed people in harm’s way in order to create a new environment in which opportunity is no longer denied but instead exists in abundance.
