Select from the list below by clicking on the date:

August 15, 2008 ~ Press Release:  Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans to Be Featured in New Sundance Channel Program

August 12, 2008 ~ Announcement from Lauren Anderson, NHS CEO:  Neighborhood Housing Services Selects New COO.

July 31, 2008 ~ Eddie Izzard on New Orleans - Excerpt from LA Weekly.

June 23, 2008 (see June 10) ~ Eddie Izzard Concert at Tulane University, McAllister Auditorium.  A list of the concert's very special sponsors can be seen by clicking here. We couldn't have done the show without them!

June 10, 2008 ~ St. Tammany Arts: Eddie Izzard Adds New Orleans to Tour; Show to Benefit Housing Services

March 18, 2008 ~ Times-Picayune:  HANO Celebrates 100th Homeowner.

December 8, 2007 ~ WWLTV.COM:  Local non-profits try to soften the blow of sub-prime mortgage crisis.

December 6, 2007 ~ Segment on Hoops for Homes posted on NBA.com and aired on NBATV

November 27, 2007 ~ Hoops for Homes Reaches Out to Teachers. Next phase of program aims to help educators get back into their homes.

November 5, 2007 ~ Neighborhood Housing Services, Sandler O'Neill & Partners, and Bank of New Orleans team up to help teachers purchase homes.

October 28, 2007 ~ WYLD Sunday Journal:  October Housing Segment

July 29, 2007 ~ WYLD Sunday Journal:  On Demand

July 28, 2007 ~ WWOZ Street Talk:  The American Dream

June 2, 2007 ~ 99.5 FM Photo Gallery: Freret Fest 2007

May 31, 2007 ~ Community Gumbo Blogspot: Lauren Anderson: Neighborhood Housing Services Hosts the 10th Freret Street Festival & Home Ownership Fair.

May 30, 2007 ~ Times Picayune by Leslie Williams:  Little-known program can turn renters into owners.
 
May 23, 2007 ~ New Orleans Magazine:  "Dazzling Design" by John P. Klingman; photographed by Jeffery Johnston.  Our annual pursuit of the year’s best new architecture.

November 9, 2006 ~ Final Gifts Announced for $100 Million Qatar Fund for Hurricane Katrina Victims

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June 10, 2008 ~ St. Tammany Arts: Eddie Izzard Adds New Orleans to Tour; Show to Benefit Housing Services.  Posted by Roberta Carrow-Jackson

This June, comedian and actor Eddie Izzard will make a stop out of his hugely successful STRIPPED tour to perform a benefit concert to help low and moderate-income citizens of New Orleans become sustainable homeowners.

The one-night-only benefit presented by WestBeth Entertainment in association with The Jefferson Performing Arts Society, will take place on Monday, June 23rd at 7:30PM at McAlister auditorium at Tulane University. One hundred percent of proceeds will be going to Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans. Following the comedian's lead, Ticketmaster has agreed donate a portion of its ticket fees to the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans.

Tickets are new available through New Orleans Ticketmaster at (504) 522-5555 or www.ticketmaster.com. There will be a special reception with Izzard after the show for 'Producer Circle' ticket holders.

NHS develops both houses and neighborhoods through real estate development and community building activities. Since 1995, NHS has counseled over 6,500 families and provided HomeBuyer and/or Financial Fitness Training to 4,382 students of which at least 1,282 have become first time homebuyers. In the same time frame, NHS has closed 386 residential loans, investing over $8.7 million in New Orleans. Since 1995, NHS has renovated 289 homes, investing an additional $12.8 million in construction activity. For more information on NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING SERVICES, visit http://www.nhsnola.org.

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March 18, 2008 ~ Times-Picayune:  HANO Celebrates 100th Homeowner.  Leslie Williams, Staff writer

In March 2006 as Rachelle Taylor looked at her flood-ravaged, two bedroom apartment on Louisiana Avenue Parkway in New Orleans she was "disgusted, aggravated."

"I'd lost everything."

Taylor remembered the jealousy she felt when a friend talked about returning to New Orleans to gut her home.

"She had a home," the single mother of three recalled. "I had nothing."

At this moment, Taylor, who is hearing-impaired and a former student at McDonogh No. 24 School for the Deaf, declared: "Lord, I will not pay no one else's rent."

Today, Taylor, a crew member at a McDonald's restaurant, owns a new three-bedroom, two bath, Uptown home in the 3000 block of Dryades Street with a porch, backyard and off-street parking -- a notable residence. So special, Housing Authority of New Orleans executive administrator Karen Cato-Turner and others gathered Tuesday to celebrate "the 100th family in New Orleans to successfully use the home-buyer program."

Twenty-seven public housing residents have become homeowners via the program and another 73 families used their Section 8 vouchers to help pay a mortgage, rather than rent.

"It's a program that grows the city's middle class,"said Cato-Turner.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's home ownership program allows families approved for the Section 8 home ownership vouchers to switch from rental assistance to mortgage assistance when they are ready to buy a house.

And Taylor, 33, was ready.

Nationwide, she "joins nearly 7,000 other families who have successfully used this program to build a better tomorrow," Cato-Turner-said.

Although created in 2000, the Section 8 homebuying component of the program didn't become operational in New Orleans until a year later. It is less well known than the rental program, which serves thousands.

"Some people who live in New Orleans, may think affordable housing doesn't affect them, but it does, said Nicole Barnes, HANO's director of home ownership. "If we want stable communities, we need more homeowners."

In addition to being financially fit, anyone who participates in the Section 8 homebuying program is required to:

• Be a first-time homeowner.

• Be employed for at least a year.

• Satisfactorily complete HANO's pre-assistance home ownership and housing counseling program.

• Attend post-purchase counseling and monthly homebuyer club meetings where speakers lecture about home repair, taxes, appraisals and other homeowner issues.

• Earn an annual salary of at least $11,700 -- although HANO normally selects applicants earning $15,000 to $18,000 or more.

Barnes said applicants go through the same process as everyone else: they have to have acceptable credit scores and they must use traditional lending institutions.

"Since I moved into the house Feb. 27, the same day that I went to closing, whenever I get money I'm scared to spend it," Taylor said. "I wasn't like that before. I'd go shopping all the time. Now, I've got an account that I save $200 a month in. If something breaks, I don't want to wait for the money before I can fix it. I don't operate like that. I've got to be prepared. It's my responsibility."

Cato-Turner, Barnes and others emphasized partnerships with others inside and outside of government allow applicants to buy more house for the dollar.

Taylor pays $853 a month on her 30-year mortgage.

Although her new house is worth about $150,000, Jericho Road, an Episcopal housing initiative, sold it to Taylor for $119,000. And Jericho Road spent nearly $4,000 to resolve title problems associated with a vacant lot it acquired from the city's adjudicated list.

The nonprofit, in part, was able to reduce the price because of assistance it received from CrossRoads Mission in Kentucky. CrossRoads donated supplies, shingles and lumber to build Taylor's home and Southeast Christian Church in Louisville -- a member church of CrossRoads -- framed the house, said Brad Powers, Jericho Road's executive director.

"In this neighborhood, when we started building homes, about 85 percent was rental," Powers said. "We're not giving a house away. We're building a taxpayer, building wealth equity -- the American Dream."

The most expensive home purchased by participants in the home ownership program pre-Katrina was $106,000, but one cannot find houses at those price points post-Katrina, Barnes said. Furthermore, insurance rates are soaring and property taxes are higher, so it's more important than ever to find "gap-financing partners," she said.

Fidelity Homestead provided Taylor a traditional, below-market mortgage at 5.37 percent, Barnes said. And Taylor got more help.

The City of New Orleans provided a $26,000 soft-second mortgage that Taylor will not have to pay back if she pays off the traditional mortgage and remains in the house for 15 years, said Janice Brown, a worker with the city's Affordable Housing Unit. And Taylor will not have to pay back a $10,000 soft-second mortgage from Neighborhood Housing Services if she satisfies the mortgage from Fidelity and remains in the house, Brown said.

"I'm grateful to Jericho and the others for bringing the price down," said Taylor, who received special presents -- dishes, towels, flatware, pots, glasses and bedspreads -- from HANO for being the 100th homeowner. "There are no circumstances that will bring me back to renting. Even if I have to work 10 jobs, it won't happen again."

Anyone interested in participating in the program should call Audrey Williams, the homebuyer program's lead case manager, said Barnes, who noted about 100 applicants currently are in "various stages, some working on their credit, some on their savings."

"I look forward to having the 200th home ownership celebration," said Barnes. "which may occur in three years." (top of page)

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You know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said Lauren Anderson, spokesperson for Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans, a group at the forefront of helping local homeowners deal with the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

It’s a problem because those homeowners are now facing a substantial hike in their mortgage interest rates. And in the metro area, it's a crisis far more complex than it is elsewhere.

“As with everything else, for those of us who live in the New Orleans region, our lives are so much more complicated than the rest of the country,” Anderson said.

That's because homeowners here deal with other housing problems, including higher homeowner’s insurance rates and storm damaged homes. But in some cases, those factors could actually end up helping some people.

"Particularly in the New Orleans region, mortgage lenders tend to be a little bit more understanding that our circumstances are different,” Anderson said.

However, that understanding will only extend so far. This week, President George W. Bush announced a plan to freeze interest rate hikes for five years.

“The homeowners deserve our help. The steps I've outlined today are a sensible response to a serious challenge,” Bush said.

But the plan only extends to homeowners who got into sub-prime mortgages in 2005 and 2006 and have not missed a payment. It’s a plan that federal officials hope will be enough to keep the crisis at bay.

"Modifications are preferable to wide-scale foreclosures, which hurt not only borrowers, but neighborhoods, communities and—potentially—the economy at large,” said Sheila Blair, FDIC Chairperson.

Credit and housing advocates said in the big picture, some of those loans shouldn’t have been made in the first place because people overextended themselves and what they thought they could pay.

“We live in a society that encourages people to try and get more than they can afford,” Anderson said.

And those advocates said if there's anything to have been learned by all this, it’s that people need to try and live within their means.

Mortgage options have become so complex now, they said that buyers need to take a class to become more familiar with it all.  (top of page)

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December 6, 2007 ~ Segment on Hoops for Homes posted on NBA.com and aired on NBATV.  Click to here to view.   (top of page)

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November 27, 2007 ~ Hoops for Homes Reaches Out to Teachers. Next phase of program aims to help educators get back into their homes.

The New Orleans Hornets announced today that local teachers will become the focus of the next phase of the team’s Hoops for Homes initiative.

In partnership with Neighborhood Housing Services and with financial support from NeighborWorks America, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, The Salvation Army, and star center Tyson Chandler, the Hornets will provide gap funding to help educators from across the New Orleans metropolitan area finish repairs to their storm-damaged houses, enabling them to finally return home. The program will be administered by Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans.

“Teachers are among our most treasured assets, and the passion they show for rebuilding New Orleans must be met by a community grateful for their contributions and eager to help them rebuild,” said Hornets owner George Shinn. “By focusing the efforts of our Hoops for Homes initiative on teachers, we can help ease their personal burden of rebuilding and free them to focus their efforts on the important task of educating our children.”

In addition to the financial and material aid and services provided by the initiative’s partners, Chandler, the NBA’s second leading rebounder last season, announced his support for Hoops for Homes by pledging $100 for every rebound he grabs this season to the initiative through his Rebound to Rebound program. Chandler will also appear in public service announcements raising awareness for Hoops for Homes.

“Helping communities rebound from disaster starts with rebuilding homes,” said Chandler. “There are a number of teachers that have had a lasting impact on my life, and giving back to the teachers of this community is one way I can honor their role in my life and help to rebuild New Orleans at the same time.”

Gap funding is available to qualified applicants who are certified teachers from both public and private schools throughout Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist, and St. Tammany parishes, and are still short of the amount of money needed to complete repairs on their storm-damaged homes after insurance settlements and state or federal government assistance.

For more information on Hoops for Homes, click here.  (top of page) 

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November 5, 2007 ~ Neighborhood Housing Services, Sandler O'Neill & Partners, and Bank of New Orleans team up to help teachers purchase homes.

NY Firm Donated $280,000

With the help of Bank of New Orleans, the Sandler O’Neill & Partners investment firm of New York donated more than $250,000 to Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) to help Orleans Parish school teachers become homeowners. Teachers who qualify will be eligible for grants up to $20,000 each to assist with down payment and closing costs.

“We are so very grateful that Sandler O’Neill recognizes the need in New Orleans for quality teachers. And NHS recognizes the value of these teachers becoming homeowners – value to their schools, their students, themselves, and the community at large. Teachers who apply for these grants will be guided by NHS and will participate in our homeownership services, including counseling and homebuyer training,” said Lauren Anderson, NHS Chief Executive Officer.

Sandler O’Neill’s investment in the New Orleans recovery did not come by chance. On September 11th, 2001, more than a third of Sandler O’Neill’s 177 employees perished when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed following the worst terrorist attack in American history. Through their own personal tragedy and their own recovery experience, Sandler O’Neill has reached out to the city of New Orleans to pay forward the empathy and support so many others have shown them since 2001.

“We hope this donation will help contribute in a small way to the revitalization of the New Orleans area. NHS is a terrific organization and is playing a key role in attracting and retaining teachers to New Orleans. Providing the young people of this community with a quality education will be essential in helping the city recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina,” says Jimmy Dunne, Senior Managing Principal of Sandler O’Neill.

For more information on the HomeWorks program, click here.   (top of page)

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October 28, 2007 ~ WYLD Sunday Journal:  October Housing Segment
Hal talks to Shauna Sassoon about the Rockerfeller Foundation Redevelopment Fellowship Program.  Click here to listen.  (top of page) 

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July 29, 2007 ~ WYLD Sunday Journal:  On Demand
Hal interviews Lauren Anderson of Neighborhood Housing Services about new affordable homes in Uptown New Orleans.  Click here to listen.  (top of page) 

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July 28, 2007 ~ WWOZ Street Talk:  The American Dream
Neighboorhood Housing Service, a local non-profint organization is helping low and moderate income families become home owners. This is the story of one family in particular and their commitment to creating a better life for themselves.
Click here to listen to interview.  (top of page) 

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June 2, 2007 ~ 99.5 FM Photo Gallery: Freret Fest 2007
It's the 10th annual Freret Street Festival and Home Ownership Resource Fair.  To see pictures, click here, then go to Festivals and Events, and then Freret Street Festival 2007, towards the bottom of the list.

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May 31, 2007 ~ Community Gumbo Blogspot: Lauren Anderson: Neighborhood Housing Services Hosts the 10th Freret Street Festival & Home Ownership Fair.  Listen

As the Director of Neighborhood Housing Services, Lauren Anderson has been a tireless advocate of, and facilitator for, homeownership as a path to wealth creation and economic development. Neighborhood Housing Services is hosting the 10th annual Freret Street Festival today.

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May 30, 2007 ~ Times Picayune by Leslie Williams:  Little-known program can turn renters into owners.  Section 8 voucher helps to pay mortgage for those who qualify.

As a longtime low-income renter in New Orleans, Lakica Watkins thought she was familiar with the Section 8 voucher program that helped pay her rent for an Uptown apartment.

But while processing paperwork one day at her secretarial job at Neighborhood Housing Services, she discovered that the voucher also can be used to purchase a home -- an opportunity she took advantage of two months ago.

Because the program is not widely known, Watkins became just the 58th person in the city to use her Section 8 voucher to pay her mortgage. And at least 100 more may do the same.

Watkins bought a $107,000 home Uptown. Others in the city have used homeownership vouchers to buy homes in eastern New Orleans, St. Roch, Algiers, Milneburg, St. Claude, the 7th Ward, Pontchartrain Park, Central City and in the Fair Grounds neighborhood.

In Watkins' case, the mortgage is less than her rent was.

The monthly cost of sheltering the single mother and her three children in an Uptown three-bedroom rental was $749. The monthly mortgage for her home in the 1900 block of Seventh Street "is $740.61 -- less than what I was paying when I rented a place about half the size of my house."

As a renter, Watkins' housing costs were paid with money from her paycheck and money from the federal housing choice voucher program. Her mortgage is paid the same way.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's homeownership program allows families with Section 8 vouchers to use them to help with mortgage payments. Families approved for the Section 8 homeownership vouchers can switch from rental assistance to mortgage assistance when they are ready to buy a house, HUD spokeswoman Donna White said.

Although created in 2000, the program didn't become operational in New Orleans until a year later.

Across the country, 6,567 families have become homeowners through the program, according to a HUD count. President Bush's 2008 budget calls for money to help 10,000 more families become homeowners, White said.

The homebuying program is less well-known than the rent program, which serves more than 5,000 New Orleans families. And the outcomes vastly differ.

"I paid rent for someone else to have something to show for it," said Watkins, 32. "And when you're renting you have to live by someone else's rules."

One of the first things she did when the family moved into their new home was to let her children decide what color they wanted their rooms painted. Keishawna, 11, chose purple; Tony, 9, and Keith, 13, picked a dark blue.

Their 1,200-square-foot home has three bedrooms, two baths, central air conditioning, a wash-and-storage room and a living and dining room with hardwood floors.

"The best of all is that I have a yard -- back and front," Watkins said.

Watkins welcomes the stability that comes with her new status. When she was 9 months old, her father killed her mother. Watkins then was raised by her grandmother, Ethel Lee Watkins, who died when Watkins was 9 years old. She subsequently bounced around within a network of family members until she began renting at age 17.

"You don't want your kids to live like you lived," said Watkins, who pays $168 of the $740.61 monthly mortgage, which includes taxes and insurance. The federal government picks up the $572.61 balance. Her contribution may increase if she gets a higher-paying job.

It's not an arrangement that will last for the duration of Watkins' 30-year mortgage. According to the program's guidelines, there is no time limit for an elderly household or a disabled family to receive assistance under the program. But, "for all other families, there is a mandatory term limit of 15 years if the initial mortgage incurred to finance purchase of the home has a term that is 20 years or longer."

Therefore, Watkins will be on her own in 15 years -- and she's preparing for that day by saving $100 a month.

"I'm not waiting," Watkins said. "My mindset is already there. I want it and I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep it."

Financial fitness is what Watkins is about these days.

In preparation for the jump from renter to homeowner, Watkins -- guided by NHS housing counselor Pearlie Tyler -- resolved issues regarding delinquent credit cards. A negotiated payment of $400 cleaned up that mess. An unpaid cable bill turned out to be an error that was corrected.

In addition to becoming financially fit, said Nicole Barnes, HANO's director of homeownership, Watkins and others in the program are required to:

-- Be a first-time homeowner.

-- Be employed for at least a year.

-- Satisfactorily complete HANO's pre-assistance homeownership and housing counseling program.

-- Attend post-purchase counseling and monthly homebuyer club meetings where speakers lecture about home repair, taxes, appraisals and other homeowner issues.

-- Earn an annual salary of at least $10,300.

"Most of our applicants earn between $15,000 and $18,000 a year," Barnes said. "And they go through the same process everyone else has to purchase a home. They have to have acceptable credit scores. And they use traditional lending institutions."

At least five other families in the queue "may be able to close by August," she said.

Fifteen more families are in various stages of the process: some searching for homes, some repairing their credit and some completing their homeowner training, she said.

Although primarily designed for the working poor, New Orleans residents who are disabled and people 62 or older also can use the voucher program. In addition to receiving assistance for the duration of a 30-year mortgage, they are exempt from the employment rule, she said.

The housing authority plans to help at least 100 people over the next two years complete the journey from renter to homeowner through the voucher program, Barnes said, adding that "if the demand and qualified applicants are there, the number could grow beyond 100."

The process Watkins completed begins with a call to Audrey Williams, the lead case manager in HANO's Homeownership Department, at (504) 670-3428.

"She is the first contact," Barnes said. "And anyone interested in the program should schedule an appointment with her.  (top of page)

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May 23, 2007 ~ New Orleans Magazine:  "Dazzling Design" by John P. Klingman; photographed by Jeffery Johnston.  Our annual pursuit of the year’s best new architecture.

URBANbuild House 1. 

[picture coming]  URBANbuild is a project of Tulane Architecture.

PROJECT TYPE Located in Upper Tremé on Dumaine Street, lakeside of Claiborne Avenue in the 6th Ward, there’s a dramatically new 1,300-square-foot house. It is a single story structure with a somewhat linear plan but it is not a traditional shotgun. Instead, it’s the first URBANbuild house, a project of Tulane School of Architecture and Neighborhood Housing Services.

BEST ARCHITECTURAL FEATURE
Perhaps the most engaging aspect of the project is not its physical appearance but the unusual and compelling circumstances that led to its existence. Post-Katrina, there has been lots of local interest in new ideas for building and designing houses. Under the direction of Tulane Architecture’s professor of practice Byron Mouton and project construction supervisor Sam Richards, a group of upper level students designed and built the house in nine months. The concept is not unique; it parallels programs at other Schools of Architecture – most notably the late Sam Mockbee’s Rural Studio at Auburn – but it’s a first for Tulane and New Orleans.

[picture coming] This prototypical house can be constructed in other versions.

Architecturally, the house is a hybrid. It engages some traditional elements of the city’s residential buildings, but also has some unusual characteristics. Most successful is the front porch, clearly a contemporary version of an essential historic element. This porch features a great idea – a built-in bench facing the street – but also has unpainted wood, more like a deck. Also a mix is the massing: the linear form relates well to the long thin New Orleans lot but the roof has a ridge parallel to the street, like a extremely stretched Creole cottage rather than a shotgun. One contemporary design element is a large sliding door opening onto a rear porch. There is also a system of horizontally banded sliding windows, not commonly seen in historic areas of the city.

The house is considered prototypical; this means that the plan could be constructed again, in variations or in a mirrored version in other locations, as has long been the local practice. In fact in terms of environmental response, it turns out that the constructed house would have been more successful for solar exposure and shading if the mirrored form had been built. Prototypical design implies experimentation and two other design configurations are currently under construction. One of the biggest challenges in these projects has been affordability. This has been greatly augmented since the students are receiving academic credit instead of being financially compensated for their labor; a federal Housing and Urban Development grant and private donations are also involved.

“Preservation and progress can coexist – in fact we believe they must,” says Mouton. This is a commendable endeavor; to see well-designed contemporary buildings arising in New Orleans neighborhoods is a positive sign for the future.

Byron Mouton, director URBANbuild designbuild; Sam Richards, director of construction; Emilie Taylor, project manager; Claire Cahan, Jason Heinze, Matt Hux, Margaret Joyce, Andrea Patrick, Carlos Sanchez, Heather Skeehan, Emilie Taylor, Ben Wasserman, Seth Welty, Daniel Zangara, design studio

John P. Klingman is a registered architect and a Favrot Professor of Architecture at Tulane University. (top of page)

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November 9, 2006 ~ Final Gifts Announced for $100 Million Qatar Fund for Hurricane Katrina Victims

Qatar’s Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Nasser Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, today announced gifts $5.6 million, which is the final installment of the $100 million Qatar Katrina Fund. The Fund was established by His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Amir of the State of Qatar, to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast area.

Announced by HH the Amir immediately after the devastating 2005 storm, the Qatar Katrina Fund was designed to provide direct cash assistance to people and institutions in most dire need in the wake of the storm. The Qatar Katrina Fund was dedicated to helping individuals and communities in the affected region rebuild healthcare, education, housing, and places of worship. The Fund’s first phase of donations, totaling more than $61 million, were announced on May 2nd, 2006 and included funds to rebuilding homes, financial assistance to provide medical care, and university scholarships – all reserved for victims of Katrina. The second phase, a $33 million gift announced on September 8, 2006, targeted the hardest hit areas of Mississippi and Louisiana and commemorated the one-year anniversary of the hurricane. With the latest gift announced today, all $100 million have now been committed.

Ambassador Al Khalifa personally led the effort to identify gift recipients and select local organizations to manage and distribute the funds to assure that they reached the people who needed them most. According to Ambassador Al Khalifa, “While this represents the final phase of the Qatar Katrina Fund’s donations, we know that the true legacy of the gift will last generations. Our intention was to meet emergency needs, yes, but also to express friendship and compassion.”

Ambassador Al Khalifa received considerable advice in evaluating prospective gift recipients from the Governors and U.S. Congressional Delegations from the most affected states, the Mayors of major cities, a distinguished advisory committee and other community leaders.

The Qatar Katrina Fund chose the following organizations for the final allotment of its $100 million donation: