Help Miss Dorothy Save Her Home
Donation protected
My name is Victoria I live with my husband Phil Vanderyken, an artist and musician and our two dogs in an old shotgun house in the Black Pearl neighborhood in uptown New Orleans.
The Black Pearl was traditionally an African-American neighborhood that like so many others, has been thoroughly gentrified over the last ten years or so. We love our neighborhood and are proud to call our neighbors friends. Many of them are older African-Americans who have lived here most of their lives, raised families and have deep roots in the neighborhood.
Dorothy Hammett, Miss Dorothy for short, is one of them. She lives across the street from us. She's eighty-three and has lived in the Black Pearl for more than thirty years, in a home that she shared with her late husband Elius.
Monday June 8 was a very sad day in our neighborhood, like most New Orleans folks, I was relieved that Tropical storm Cristobal mostly brought a ton of rain.
Miss Dorothy, however, was not so fortunate. That morning we got a frantic call from a neighbor. Apparently a strong wind had caused the floor of miss Dorothy's kitchen to collapse and fall unto the ground, thereby pulling down half the kitchen roof and destabilizing the entire house. Her bedroom ceiling came down. Thankfully she wasn't in bed. Her house, like all houses on our block, sits on piers and is almost 100 years old.
Miss Dorothy's house is tiny, maybe 600 square feet and on a small lot, it can be rebuilt.
Miss Dorothy's been taking care of herself independently after her husband's passing, even through the pandemic, going shopping for groceries once a week, wearing her mask, sweeping leaves from her porch every morning. She mostly keeps to herself. In a few minutes her entire independence, her entire LIFE, was upended. Entergy came and took out the gas meter and cut the power from the utility pole. She's at a neighbor's house, but she is now effectively homeless.
We're heartbroken. She is a sweet soul who wanted nothing more than to have a peaceful old age in the neighborhood she's lived for so many years, among people she's known most of her life. Now her entire existence is in upheaval.
Please help us help her, she needs immediate assistance so permits can be filed and contractors hired to help rebuild her home.
Funds will be spent to temporarily house Miss Dorothy in the neighborhood.
File for permits to rehabilitate the house
Hire a Contractor, Electricians, Plumbers, Roofers
Anything you can give would be appreciated!
The Black Pearl was traditionally an African-American neighborhood that like so many others, has been thoroughly gentrified over the last ten years or so. We love our neighborhood and are proud to call our neighbors friends. Many of them are older African-Americans who have lived here most of their lives, raised families and have deep roots in the neighborhood.
Dorothy Hammett, Miss Dorothy for short, is one of them. She lives across the street from us. She's eighty-three and has lived in the Black Pearl for more than thirty years, in a home that she shared with her late husband Elius.
Monday June 8 was a very sad day in our neighborhood, like most New Orleans folks, I was relieved that Tropical storm Cristobal mostly brought a ton of rain.
Miss Dorothy, however, was not so fortunate. That morning we got a frantic call from a neighbor. Apparently a strong wind had caused the floor of miss Dorothy's kitchen to collapse and fall unto the ground, thereby pulling down half the kitchen roof and destabilizing the entire house. Her bedroom ceiling came down. Thankfully she wasn't in bed. Her house, like all houses on our block, sits on piers and is almost 100 years old.
Miss Dorothy's house is tiny, maybe 600 square feet and on a small lot, it can be rebuilt.
Miss Dorothy's been taking care of herself independently after her husband's passing, even through the pandemic, going shopping for groceries once a week, wearing her mask, sweeping leaves from her porch every morning. She mostly keeps to herself. In a few minutes her entire independence, her entire LIFE, was upended. Entergy came and took out the gas meter and cut the power from the utility pole. She's at a neighbor's house, but she is now effectively homeless.
We're heartbroken. She is a sweet soul who wanted nothing more than to have a peaceful old age in the neighborhood she's lived for so many years, among people she's known most of her life. Now her entire existence is in upheaval.
Please help us help her, she needs immediate assistance so permits can be filed and contractors hired to help rebuild her home.
Funds will be spent to temporarily house Miss Dorothy in the neighborhood.
File for permits to rehabilitate the house
Hire a Contractor, Electricians, Plumbers, Roofers
Anything you can give would be appreciated!
Organiser and beneficiary
Victoria Vanderyken
Organiser
New Orleans, LA
Dorothy Hammett
Beneficiary
