[fla_tiger]

Musicians Village to dedicate 30 new homes
By CityBusiness staff report

2006-08-18 2:33 PM CST

NEW ORLEANS — Thirty new homes in the New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village will be dedicated at 2 p.m. Saturday at 4000 N. Roman St.

Ground was broken in March on the Musicians’ Village, an Upper Ninth Ward home-building project conceived by musicians Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr.

The Musicians’ Village is the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity's first rebuilding project in the Upper Ninth Ward. Habitat purchased 8.1 vacant acres to build 75 single-family homes, six "elder-friendly" doubles and the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.

Habitat will build the homes in partnership with displaced New Orleans musicians and qualifying homeowner families. The project will eventually consist of another 300 homes in the surrounding area for low-income families and musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The 30 homes were sponsored and largely built by the Baptist Crossroads Foundation Inc., a New Orleans-area nonprofit. The homes are being sold to Habitat partner families who will pay Habitat’s no-down payment, no-interest, no-profit loans.•