Breaking: New Federal Aid for Historic Preservation

New Orleans homeowners who were denied federal grants to restore their historic properties got some good news today: Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitchell Landrieu announced that Congress had approved a second round of funding that will give the residents a chance to share $10 million in preservation aid.

Landrieu has been lobbying for the added funding since 2006, when a $12.5 million allotment ran dry after serving just 289 of the more than 1,200 applicants who qualified.

"This next round of Hurricane Recovery Grants will help people in South Louisiana rebuild their homes and help our neighborhoods recover in a meaningful way," says Landrieu. "My office is ready to get this additional funding into the hands of Louisiana homeowners quickly, so that our rebuilding can move forward." That means beginning in early September, contacting applicants who were previously identified as priority candidates, but were turned down for funding due to the budget shortfall, to start reviewing their proposed projects.

The grants are important to New Orleans, which has more historic properties per capita than any other American city with over 35,000 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. When Katrina's floodwaters swamped the city, many of those old homes, schools, and cultural institutions were left in near ruins.

To help restore those buildings, Landrieu, along with The National Trust for Historic Preservation, asked Congress for disaster relief money specifically earmarked for preservation. Lawmakers responded by awarding the $12.5 million to the Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office.

The office then started doling out grants just 45 days after the homeowners' applications for assistance were due. The timeline is remarkable considering that two years after the storm thousands of New Orleans residents are still waiting on insurance or other federal aid money. Grant recipients, who got between $5,000 and $45,000 apiece, immediately got started shoring up damaged foundations, replacing roofs, mending cracked plaster walls and refinishing old wood floors. But the money ran out with a long line of applicants still waiting.

With the new allotment moving through the system, the first batch of grant recipients are still making repairs. It hasn’t been easy, though. Meet four homeowners and see how they are overcoming the immense challenge of rebuilding their houses—and their lives.