- August 4, 2010 • 3:00 pm PDT
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Making sure people return to their homes
The teacher Liz McCartney and the attorney Zack Rosenberg moved to New Orleans from Washington, D.C., in early 2006 for what they describe as "an unconventional vacation." Once they got there, they knew they wouldn't be returning to the capital. "We couldn't just leave and say, 'Goodbye, good luck with that,'" says Rosenberg. "We moved down three months later." They landed in the working-class parish of St. Bernard and quickly became frustrated with the status quo--a disaster-relief model that focused more on process than results. So they founded the St. Bernard Project, which focuses on one success metric: the number of residents who return to their homes. Four years later, the organization has worked with more than 20,000 volunteers to rebuild the homes of more than 270 families. Their newest endeavor, Good Work, Good Pay, hires unemployed veterans and other out-of-work locals to build affordable housing. "We believe that these problems are solvable," says Rosenberg. "I hope other people can see that too."
-Kyla Fullenwider
