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Judith Keller, International Research Scholar of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

How Brad Pitt's green housing dream for Hurricane Katrina survivors turned into a nightmare

Brad Pitt walks past one of the first homes built in New Orleans by his Make It Right Foundation in this 2008 photo. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation built 109 eye-catching and affordable homes in New Orleans for a community where many people were displaced by damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now this housing development is in disarray. The vast majority of the recently constructed homes are riddled with construction-related problems that have led to mold, termites, rotting wood, flooding and other woes.

At least six are boarded up and abandoned. Many residents have filed lawsuits that are still pending. That is, a nonprofit that built houses with input from Frank Gehry and other prominent architects amid much fanfare for survivors of one disaster then ushered in another disaster.

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