Blitz build brings new houses and new hope to neighborhood

For release: Sept. 25, 2008

The third annual Fuller Center Blitz Build is bringing three new houses to a new corner of the Allendale neighborhood in Shreveport, La., this week, with volunteers lifting hope and community pride as they raise walls and roof trusses.

"We are using our hands and our hearts for a mission that is greater than ourselves," said Averil Miles, executive director of the Northwest Louisiana chapter of The Fuller Center for Housing.

The blitz is part of the Building on Higher Ground initiative, led by The Fuller Center for Housing in a partnership formed with Community Renewal International soon after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Once home to drug dealers and gang members, the neighborhood is becoming a model of community renewal as it goes through a transformation into a place of new hope and new beginnings. A total of 33 houses have been built in the past three years; five more, including the three started this week, are under construction. 

"Our partnership with Community Renewal is wonderful. We build houses and Community Renewal builds community. We will leave the world better than we found it," said Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity and founder and president of The Fuller Center for Housing.

"Let us rejoice because of where God has brought us. But let us also realize we have just started. What we advocate for Shreveport is the elimination of substandard housing. Just think of the impact you would have on Shreveport if you built 5,000 houses here. You would make a better city for everybody."

The blitz is a model of partnerships. Materials for the houses came from New Hope Construction, based in Hendersonville, Tenn., and volunteers have come from both sides of the Red River.

Applicants approved for the homes must meet certain requirements and must invest 350 "sweat equity" hours of work on their house or other houses. The loan made available to the homeowner requires no down payment and carries no interest.

Latrice Bell, 26, is one of the new homeowners. She still lives with her parents and is thankful for the chance to purchase a home and to help build it.

"This will be a new experience for me and I'm excited. I'll pick up a hammer, move boards, paint - whatever I need to do," she said. "This is such a blessing that I was able to get approved."

Janet Castanel, a retired nurse's aide from New Orleans, will live in one of the two houses started before the blitz. She is a hurricane evacuee whose second-floor apartment took in a foot of flood waters during Hurricane Katrina. She celebrated when the approval came through on her house: "I was like - Yes! I called all my family."

During the blitz she has been helping with the work on the other houses, even though there is still much to do on her own. "I am sowing seeds," she said. "That's how you get your reward."

Despite the heartbreak of losing everything in the hurricane, Janet describes herself as a blessed person. "Every day it gets better," she said. "I never thought I would own a home at my age. I thought that window of opportunity was over.

"I'm very grateful that Shreveport took me in as a neighbor. They didn't even know me. To me, it's a miracle. There are still good people in this world."

Community Renewal International is a nonprofit effort to restore safe and healthy communities through caring relationships. Founded in 1994, Community Renewal reaches at-risk youth through Friendship Houses built in impoverished neighborhoods, strengthens education through the Adult Renewal Academy, partners with The Fuller Center for Housing and connects caring partners who turn their neighborhoods into safe havens of friendship and support.


Contact: David Westerfield, director of communications
(318) 425-3222
davidwesterfield@communityrenewal.us