Velma

Homeowner Bio

In August 2005, Velma Lewis had just one payment left on her mortgage. She expected to spend her retirement in the sanctuary of the home where she and her family had spent the previous 30 years.

“But then Katrina came and just made a mess of everything,” Velma said.

Originally from Collins, Miss., Velma moved to New Orleans when she was 16. Even as the youngest of 10 children, Velma, now 70, is the definition of a caretaker. She cared for her mother and brother when they were ill, and she always had an open door to take in family members. When her sister passed away, she took in her 10 nieces and nephews. Her husband, Willie, was in an accident and had to have his right leg amputated, so Velma cared for him even as she took in her ill mother-in-law and brother-in-law.

Willie died of lung cancer in 1998 and, his mother and brother passed away not long after.

“They all sort of followed each other,” Velma said. But in a way, she said, it was almost a blessing that they didn’t have to go through the pain of seeing much of their city destroyed and face the difficulty of relocating.

Before he died, Willie worked as a shellman on the Mississippi River, unloading ships and boats, while Velma worked for one family for 35 years, caring for the children, taking care of the home, doing the laundry and the cooking, as wells caring for her four children and other relatives.

When the storm hit, two of Velma’s children and two of her grandchildren were living in the house with her. The five of them stayed at the Belmont Hotel on Canal Street and later evacuated to a shelter in Houston. Eventually Velma was offered a senior citizen apartment there, but she couldn’t take her children and grandchildren with her. Luckily, one of her nieces lived in Houston and promised to help take look after them.

“You have to start somewhere, and so I took it,” Velma said.

She stayed in Houston for a year and then lived in Baker, La., for two years. But she really wanted to come home to New Orleans.

“I lived in that particular home for 30 years,” she said. “It was just home—I missed my church, I missed my church members, I missed my friends and relatives.”

Her home had more than four feet of flooding in some parts and three feet in others, enough to cause irreparable water damage to the whole house. With the FEMA money she received, Velma made her last mortgage payment. After the home was gutted, Velma used her Road Home money to hire a contractor, who did part of the work, then disappeared. She later found out that much of the work that was completed needed to be redone.

Now Velma is back in her neighborhood, living in an apartment not far from her old home. But losing the Road Home money was a huge setback, and today she struggles to keep up with all of her payments. Velma is anemic and suffered a heart attack two years ago. As she confronts a litany of doctor’s appointments, health concerns and worries about paying her bills, she hopes she’ll soon be back in the comfort of the home she’s known for 30 years.

“Oh yeah, I’d really like to see that day,” she said.

Last a week members from the Jewish Federation volunteered with the St. Bernard Project as part of the National Day of Service in memory of September, 11. Members of the federation volunteered at four different houses, including Velma Lewis'. At the Lewis home, volunteers worked on mudding and had the opportunity to meet the homeowners personally.