By Amanda Murphy, Community Outreach Officer

Last summer, Rebuilding Together New Orleans opened began accepting applications from homeowners in the Gentilly neighborhood, opening up assistance to its seventh neighborhood in New Orleans. Since then, RTNO has processed hundreds of applications from Gentilly residents. Gentilly is a working to middle-class neighborhood with a high rate of homeownership that endured extraordinary damage after Hurricane Katrina. It is the kind of place where RTNO can make a great impact on the quality of life for the community for years to come. For this reason, RTNO is staging the organizations largest rebuilding effort ever, Fifty for Five. During the last week of August, the Rebuilding Together national organization will be partnering with the Rebuilding Together New Orleans affiliate to work on fifty projects in Gentilly, including homes, churches and parks. This event will be an important component in the revitalization of this family-oriented and historically significant neighborhood.

Spanning from City Park to the Lakefront to the Industrial Canal, Gentilly is one of New Orleans largest neighborhoods and also one of its most residential. The area collectively known as Gentilly is comprised of several sub-neighborhoods including Filmore, Milneberg, Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks, St. Anthony, Gentilly Terrace, Dillard, Gentilly Woods, Seabrook and Pontchartrain Park. Although there were some settlements in the area that were established in the early nineteenth century, the majority of the housing stock in Gentilly is post-World War II. Young families in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s could afford to build a new house with a yard in this neighborhood. A number of planned developments sprung up, including Pontchartrain Park, one of the first African American subdivisions in the United States.

A number of changes happened in this neighborhood over the last sixty years. Like the rest of the country, the neighborhood integrated and became racially diverse. Many homeowners who moved to the area as young families stayed and aged in their homes, raising the median age of the population.

In 2005, Gentilly was devastated by the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Levees along the London Avenue Canal broke during the storm, creating massive flood damage in the low-lying areas of the neighborhood. Sections of Gentilly sustained up to twenty feet of water in the post-Katrina floods. Before the storm, the neighborhood had approximately 47,000 residents. Now, five years later, less than half of the pre-storm population has returned. Still, with the efforts of neighborhood associations like the Gentilly Civic Improvement Association and the work of non-profits like Beacon of Hope Resource Center, the neighborhood is rebuilding. The Archdiocese of New Orleans recently built a new campus for Holy Cross High School on Paris Avenue. New residents are discovering Gentilly and older residents remain to rebuild. Rebuilding Together New Orleans is proud to be a part of rebuilding efforts in this vital neighborhood of New Orleans.