In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed St. Bernard’s Housing Community (SBHC), the largest public housing development in New Orleans. Prior to the storm, SBHC was plagued with overcrowding, failing schools, and violent crime. In the wake of Katrina, a small group of civic leaders were invited by a friend in Atlanta to learn about a redevelopment project in East Lake, Atlanta, which used a holistic community revitalization model: providing residents safe mixed-income housing and access to quality education, public services, community programming, healthcare, and neighborhood businesses like banks and grocery stores. This case study tells the story of how these civic leaders decided to form the Bayou District Foundation (BDF) with the goal of replicating the East Lake Model at the former SBHC site and surrounding neighborhood. Working closely with government agencies, the BDF brought together numerous private and non-profit partners to carry out its mission.
✴︎ Available only with purchase from publisher “Traditional governance, even when it is functioning effectively and fairly, often produces clear winners and clear losers, leaving smoldering resentments that flare up whenever there is a shift in the balance of power. Over the past two and…
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