March 6, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Leonard Riggio, chairman of the Barnes & Noble bookselling company, and his wife, Louise, have made a $20-million gift to build homes for low-income homeowners in New Orleans who have been unable to repair or rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. The donation is one of the largest to date for rebuilding on the Gulf Coast.
“When the hurricane hit and the levees broke, we just cried,” says Mr. Riggio. “We felt so badly for the people in the area. We felt compelled to help out.”
The couple made the gift through their family foundation, which has created a nonprofit development arm, Project Home Again, to oversee building. The organization expects to build 120 to 150 houses.
Project Home Again broke ground last week on its first effort, a subdivision of 20 wind-resistant homes in the Gentilly neighborhood of the city.
The homes will incorporate architectural elements from homes that have been taken down since the storm, and will take advantage of green-building techniques to make them energy-efficient and to reduce the need for heating and cooling.
In order to be eligible to receive one of the new homes, applicants must have been a resident in Gentilly two years before the storm and be willing to swap their uninhabitable home or former home site for the new house. The new homes will be awarded by lottery.
Project Home Again will provide winning families with a forgivable mortgage — there will be no monthly payments — and after five years, they will own the homes free and clear. The organization will also assume any capital-gains taxes that result from homeowners swapping their old homes for the new ones.
The Riggios hope their gift might inspire other donors.
“If nothing else happens but we get to build 120 to 150 homes, we will have profoundly affected the lives of those families, and that is sufficient motivation for us,” says Mr. Riggio.
But, he says, if in addition, “we can demonstrate leadership and put forth a model for giving that others might follow, then the effect could be that other people will initiate similar gifts and result in even more homes being built.”
