Tony Joseph is back in New Orleans, but things are still “a little unstable,” he admits.

A native of New Orleans, Tony owned and had been living in his Gentilly home for 13 years when Katrina hit. His parents were living 10 blocks away, and his brother was across the lake. Tony himself was working as a limo driver in what he remembers as “the best job I’ve ever had.”

It was a tough decision, but Tony and his family evacuated to Atlanta the day before the storm to stay with his sister there. He started “drifting” from coast to coast after that, stopping in Jackson, Houston, Dallas and Las Vegas, where he attempted to find good work. When he was unable to find employment in Las Vegas, Tony returned to New Orleans in 2008 to rebuild his home and hopefully pick up his old life.

Though he believes the people from New Orleans are “unique, warm and genuine”, Tony was one of many to suffer the post-Katrina rebuilding atrocities. Not only did his contractor swindle him out of $25,000, but the city then fined him more than $12,000 for property upkeep. He quickly found himself without money and in a spiraling situation where he didn’t know what to do or where to turn.

Tony says he is very grateful for St. Bernard Project’s willingness to help people in his situation. Reflecting on the effects of the storm four years later, he says, “I don’t think people realize the depths people sank to.” The stress that lead to the dissolution of his six-year relationship and the fear that kept his family from returning, in addition to others, are “one headache after another.” Tony doesn’t blame them for remaining in Atlanta, but he admits the separation is difficult.

While he’s happy to be back in his hometown, he says he still feels like a “man out of the country.” “It’s a little hard because I’m not living on my own the way before the storm,” he admits. A far cry from the days when he was close to his family, working a job he loved and living under his own roof, Tony is now renting with a woman from his church. He cannot have people over and has a strict midnight curfew. Unable to resume his old job, he is now working as a room service waiter at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street.

While he says he is happy to have a roof over his head and a job in which he can “make some moves in my life again,” home still isn’t fully home. For someone who calls New Orleans “the best place in the entire world,” and likes being a part of something unique, the return has been slow. He says things are coming back slowly and that it will be some time before the transformation of the city and neighborhood are complete. In the meantime, Tony looks forward to sleeping in his own bed, to hopefully reclaiming the money taken from him by the contractor, and to the return of the pulse of the vibrant city he loves.