Brad Pitt, founder of the Make It Right recovery neighborhood in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward.
Homes built by Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation are seen in the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood in New Orleans, La. Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Actor Brad Pitt and 9th Ward resident Janice Porter at the site of the future Make It Right neighborhood in early 2008
Actor Brad Pitt spoke about his plans to build 150 ecologically sustainable Make It Right homes in the Lower 9th Ward on Sunday December 2, 2007. Pink fabric houses were installed in the flood-ravaged neighorhood as symbolic stand-ins for those homes. (Photo by Matthew Hinton, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
A row of Make It Right homes stand in New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward on Tuesday, January 22, 2013. (Photo by Rusty Costanza, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Make It Right's 10th year anniversary is tainted by a moldering eyesore at 5012 N. Derbigny St. (Photo by Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
On Wednesday, a contractor completed a new porch to replace the rotted one on Roycelyn Lewis's Make It Right house
Make It Right homeowner Patricia Lewis hopes it doesn't take too long to distribute the settlement money that resulted from a four-year lawsuit struggle.
Brad Pitt, founder of the Make It Right recovery neighborhood in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward.
Almost four years ago, residents of homes built by the Make It Right Foundation, a futuristic post-Hurricane Katrina housing development founded by Brad Pitt, sued the Hollywood superstar and his associates for defective design and building practices, breach of contract, and fraud.
Late Tuesday, attorneys for the Make It Right Foundation and the affected residents told Orleans Parish Civil District Court that they had agreed on a settlement meant to make all residents of the development whole.
Homes built by Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation are seen in the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood in New Orleans, La. Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (Photo by Max Becherer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Make It Right will pay owners of the homes it built in the Lower 9th Ward $20.5 million, according to court documents. Though only six homeowners are named in the lawsuit against Make It Right, the class-action lawsuit settlement applies to all of the homeowners unless they choose to opt out.
Pending approval by a judge, each of the 107 Make It Right homeowners will be eligible to receive $25,000 as reimbursement for previous repairs made by the owners.
After attorney's fees are paid, the rest of the money would be divided up according to the problems that are present in each of the avant-garde structures, which have been beleaguered by leaks, rot and other defects.
The Make It Right house at 1750 Tennessee Street in the Lower 9th Ward was designed by architect Frank Gehry, July 11, 2012.
The settlement papers point out that responsibility for the defects to the homes has been “vigorously” contested. Attorney Ron Austin, who represented residents in the suit against the leading man and his charitable organization, framed the outcome in David versus Goliath terms.
“This is one of those scenarios when the impossible became possible,” he said on Wednesday.
Attorneys for Make It Right and Brad Pitt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Actor Brad Pitt and 9th Ward resident Janice Porter at the site of the future Make It Right neighborhood in early 2008
The settlement represents a major milestone in a long-running saga that began 14 years ago, in the aftermath of Katrina. Pitt arrived in the flood-ruined Lower 9th Ward neighborhood with the best of intentions. Starting in 2008, the actor’s nonprofit organization built 109 energy-efficient homes designed by some of the world’s great architects, including Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne and Shigeru Ban.
Paid for with donations, the construction cost $26.8 million — approaching $250,000 per home — according to Make It Right’s 2015 tax filing. But the array of nontraditional houses were sold to former area residents at affordable prices, averaging $150,000.
Make It Right absorbed the extra costs. And fueled by Pitt’s celebrity sizzle, the striking development became a post-Katrina tourist attraction and an example of resilience in the dreary recovery era. What Katrina and a collapsed levee had stolen, Pitt had restored.
But it wasn’t long before the luster of Make It Right began to tarnish as rumors spread that some of the eye-catching houses had serious problems.
A row of Make It Right homes stand in New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward on Tuesday, January 22, 2013. (Photo by Rusty Costanza, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Residents’ complaints peaked with a September 2018 class-action lawsuit. The suit alleged that many of the houses were poorly built with inadequate materials. According to the suit, some of the homes suffered from rain leakage that caused rot, structural damage and mold. The suit also cataloged faulty heating, cooling and ventilation systems, plus electrical malfunctions and plumbing mishaps.
Two rotting houses were ripped down within 10 years of being built. Some of the other buildings, still relatively new, are boarded up.
Make It Right's 10th year anniversary is tainted by a moldering eyesore at 5012 N. Derbigny St. (Photo by Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Make It Right acknowledged flaws in the architecture at least twice. First, in 2015, it sued the manufacturer of an ecologically friendly, water-resistant wood for $500,000, when the product proved to be no match for south Louisiana weather.
Make It Right lawyers sued its own managing architect, John C. Williams, in 2018, blaming him for millions in design defects. Williams said the accusation was "shocking and insulting and we intend to prove that we were not at fault." In April 2021, the organization also sued several of its former officials, accusing them of mismanaging the project.
Make It Right homeowner Patricia Lewis hopes it doesn't take too long to distribute the settlement money that resulted from a four-year lawsuit struggle.
The settlement this week was a welcome relief to some homeowners, including Patricia Lewis, whose Tennessee Avenue home has suffered from a faulty porch, an electrical fire she blamed on faulty wiring and rotting support beams.
“I’ve been so disappointed,” she said of Make It Right’s inattentiveness to the problems. Informed of the settlement, she said it would be great news, though she was skeptical the money would ever arrive.
"It sounds exciting, if it ever happens," she said.
Homeowner Roycelyn Lewis (who is not related to Patricia Lewis) said she loves her Make It Right house, which was built on the same Tennessee Street lot where her family home stood before the 2005 flood destroyed it. But it has had its share of problems. On Wednesday, a contractor was completing the rebuilding of her front porch, which had rotted. Her back porch, she pointed out, was also in the process of rotting away.
The most vexing trouble, Lewis said, was the inscrutable air-conditioning system, which had to be turned on by a serviceman each spring and eventually had to be replaced entirely at a cost of $12,500.
Lewis said that she realizes her house is in better shape than many.
On Wednesday, a contractor completed a new porch to replace the rotted one on Roycelyn Lewis's Make It Right house
"Let the (settlement) money go to the people who are in terrible, terrible shape," she said. "If they give me $25,000, I’ll be OK with just that."
For Pitt, the attempt at helping the Lower 9th Ward became a long-running legal headache. In 2018, Pitt's lawyers asked the court to absolve him of personal responsibility for the mess, but Civil District Court Judge Rachael Johnson was unswayed and Pitt was made to stay aboard the seemingly sinking ship.
Actor Brad Pitt spoke about his plans to build 150 ecologically sustainable Make It Right homes in the Lower 9th Ward on Sunday December 2, 2007. Pink fabric houses were installed in the flood-ravaged neighorhood as symbolic stand-ins for those homes. (Photo by Matthew Hinton, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Townsend Grant, 5, rides a bike he got for Christmas in front of the Make It Right home of his great-grandmother, Gloria Guy, while his uncle, Lionel Williams looks on at right December 25, 2008 in the Lower 9th Ward on Tennessee Street.
The distribution of settlement funds to individual houses will be overseen by Global Green, a California-based nonprofit organization devoted to ecological concerns, that is fronting the $20.5 million, according to Austin, the attorney for the plaintiffs.
Asked why Global Green had underwritten the Make It Right settlement, the nonprofit’s CEO William Bridge said that the organization historically “had a great relationship with Make It Right and Brad Pitt” and the board of directors' goal was “to plug it (the money) back into the community.”
Before Pitt spearheaded the Make It Right project, he’d lent his celebrity to the building of a small cluster of Global Green houses in the Lower 9th Ward.
Email Doug MacCash at dmaccash@theadvocate.com. Follow him on Instagram at dougmaccash, on Twitter at Doug MacCash and on Facebook at Douglas James MacCash.
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