 It’s been a rough four years for Evelyn Rojas and her family, but with the prospect of moving into her home on the horizon, things are looking up. Purchased just two months before Hurricane Katrina by she and her husband, the home still hasn’t been completely lived in. She had planned a housewarming party, but even that was interrupted by the family’s sudden evacuation two days before the storm.
Having been born and raised in New Orleans, this was home for Evelyn and her family. Their brief stays in Florida and Maryland were not the same as their home where people said hello and cared for their neighbors as they did for themselves. Upon their return to New Orleans one month to the day after the hurricane, she said it felt like “no one wanted to help us,” she said. “I guess everyone felt that insurance provided for us.” Despite 60% damage, the home was still standing, and they were told they could renovate.
Looking back, she sometimes wishes they hadn’t signed their home over and had kept the money to rebuild. Instead, they decided to turn to the Road Home Program which at one point lost their file for six months, at another dropped the file because she and her husband had filed for divorce, and since then has tried to demolish the home twice.
She remembers rushing over to the house on Valentine’s Day one year begging them to wait on the demolition. That next day when she went to the Road Home office on Metairie and found out that no one had picked up the file after the previous worker had moved on, Evelyn says she somehow didn’t cry. Instead, she and her daughters kept going and have since been “jumping from house to house.”
Despite the eventual divorce and troubles with the home, “God was so good after a year,” she says. All at once, she found an apartment close to the home to check on it more easily and a job as a church receptionist. Then she received a call from the St. Bernard Project saying they could help. “Thank God for people like [St. Bernard Project],” she says. “We couldn’t do it alone.”
Today Evelyn is happy to take her baby to the house and show where the nursery will be “even though they’re just sticks.” She’s happy she will be able to raise her 12-year-old and one-year-old in the home. All that’s left is to see the city back in full force. She says she’s “very grateful no matter what. It’s been a rough year, but we’ll make it.”
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Under Construction
Some of our homes currently under Construction
Barbara Williams, New Orleans, LA
Brenda Dupre-Williams, Lower 9th
Chana King, Violet, LA
Clarence and Diane Victorian, New Orleans East, LA
Cologero Caillouet, Chalmette, LA
Darren Anderson, Violet, LA
Darryn Carreras, Chalmette, LA
Darrell Betha, Mereaux, LA
David Lagrange, Arabi, LA
David Melerine, St Bernard, LA
Deborah Vita, Violet, LA
Debra Brown, Gentilly, LA
Delia Doty, Chalmette, LA
Donald & Tonya Topey, Violet, LA
Donnell Barthelemy, Violet, LA
Donnie Panarello, Chalmette, LA
Evelyn Solis, Chalmette, LA
Gerry Bierria, New Orleans, LA
Glenda Ceaser, Violet, LA
Jennifer Lanier, Violet, LA
Joycelyn and Lawrence Stokes, St. Bernard, LA
Joyce Guient, New Orleans, LA
Juan Toledo, Arabi, LA
Keith Florane, Chalmette, LA
Kenneth Burrell, Arabi, LA
Kenneth Dorsey, Lower 9th
Kwame & Dominique Adansi-Bona, Gentilly, LA
Mathilda & August Miller, Chalmette, LA
Mona Lisa Payne, New Orleans, LA
Ralph Dipadova, Chalmette, LA
Rebecca Holmes, St. Bernard, LA
Regina Beal, Violet, LA
Rhonda Krantz, St. Bernard, LA
Ricky Diecidue, Meraux, LA
Robert & Amy Barlow, Meraux, LA
Roosevelt Houston, Lower 9th
Sabrina Pacaccio, Violet, LA
Shane & Tina Meshell, Meraux, LA
Sharen Williams, Arabi, LA
Theresa McLuckey, Chalmette, LA
Vanessa Havers, St. Bernard, LA
Velma Lewis, New Orleans, LA
Willie Major, Violet, LA
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