First of many 'Make It Right' homes near completion
by Katy Reckdahl, The Times-Picayune
Monday August 18, 2008, 9:36 PM

Workers in yellow hard hats swarmed a few blocks in the Lower 9th
Ward on Monday, as contractors with Brad Pitt's Make It Right
Foundation hurried to build its first houses by the third
anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
Modern homes being built by the Make it Right Foundation on
Tennessee St in the Lower 9th Ward.
Gertrude LeBlanc, 72, rocked gently on her front porch and watched
construction workers smooth cement and nail spans of wallboard
inside a handful of partially finished houses, most of which rise on
one-story-high concrete pillars.
• See LeBlanc's neighborhood
It was "much busier" Monday than it has been since construction
began two months ago on the houses, said LeBlanc, a retired postal
worker who has lived on this block of Tennessee Street for 41 years.
While complaints of bureaucratic sloth persist, Pitt's foundation
instead provides a striking example of a private entity taking the
simplest of plans -- build houses where the flood knocked them all
down -- from idea to execution in a relatively short time. As of
today, Make It Right has raised enough money to build at least 84
houses, with an ultimate goal of financing at least 150 houses in
the Lower 9th Ward, said Tom Darden, the foundation's executive
director.