Riggio’s Project Selects New Orleans Families for New Homes

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 8/28/2008 7:45:00 AM

Project Home Again (PHA) announced it has completed the selection of 20 local families who will receive new homes currently under construction in New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood. Len Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble, and his wife, Louise, created PHA in February to help rebuild New Orleans from the impact of Hurricane Katrina by providing new homes for families displaced by the hurricane three years ago. 

Riggio said, "PHA has invested a significant amount of time to ensure that [these 20 families] are absolutely the right choice for this project and have truly been moved by their invincible spirit and heartbreaking stories."

One recipient's home took on eight-feet of water during the storm; another’s was completely lost. Recipient David Briant, a single father of two, said, “There were times when the kids and I had just given up hope. I want to express my own gratitude and the gratitude of my children to Project Home Again and to Mr. and Mrs. Riggio for such a huge gift.”

PHA will provide the families with a forgivable mortgage (no monthly payments) over a period of five years, at which point the family will own its home free and clear. The families will start moving into their new homes by August 2009. PHA homes are being constructed by Louisiana-based TKTMJ Construction.