Nolte: 17 Years Later, Katrina Victims Still Victims of Brad Pitt’s ‘Sustainable’ Home Debacle

Brad Pitt in New Orleans
Matthew HINTON/AFP via Getty Images; Mark Mainz/Getty Images

Seventeen years later, Brad Pitt’s post-Katrina green experiment is still a nightmare for homeowners.

Breitbart News has been following this horror story for years, an all-too-typical story of celebrity do-gooderism gone wrong. And as usual, especially when it comes to environmental do-gooderism, it’s everyday people who get screwed.

Not long after Hurricane Katrina and local Democrat party mismanagement basically flattened New Orlean’s 9th Ward in 2005, Brad Pitt jumped on a white horse called the Make It Right Foundation to rebuild people’s homes. Obviously, this is a good thing. The problem is that Pitt wanted to prove his left-wing bonafides, so these homes were intended to be different. These would be eco-friendly homes—you know, sustainable. Better still, Pitt would prove that eco-friendly homes are cheaper to build than homes using standard materials.

By 2016, Pitt and Make It Right had spent around $27 million to build 109 eco-friendly homes. And then all that do-gooderism met reality… In 2018, far-left NBC News reported that “a majority of Make It Right’s homes are now vacant” due to persistent complaints of “mold and collapsing structures, electrical fires and gas leaks.’ The homeowners said that “the houses were built too quickly, with low-quality materials, and that the designs didn’t take into account New Orleans’ humid, rainy climate.”

Pitt told NBC News, “I made a promise to the folks of the Lower Ninth to help them rebuild — it is a promise I intend to keep.”

But.

Make It Right has “all but disappeared.”

“Make It Right hasn’t built a home, filed tax forms, or updated its website since 2015,” NBC said. “The downtown New Orleans office has been closed, the staff has been cut to a handful, and residents say their calls go unreturned.”

Fast-forward to 2022, when we were told Brad Pitt “had been forced to settle for $20.5 million after the eco-friendly homes he built for victims of Hurricane Katrina began to fall apart.”

Okay, and now fast-forward to today, and the far-left Hollywood Reporter informs us none of Pitt’s eco-victims have received a penny:

In the summer of 2022, Global Green USA — another charity with Hollywood connections and a track record of helping rebuild in the region — had announced it would step up to pay and administer the $20.5 million, imminently disbursing the [settlement] funds. “Hopefully this agreement will allow everyone to look ahead to other opportunities to continue to strengthen this proud community in the future,” Pitt told TMZ, as media outlets spread the welcome news.

But The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the deal has since imploded amid recrimination. History has repeated in the Lower Ninth Ward — and yet another well-intentioned and highly publicized plan for these residents has resulted in failure.

According to previously unreported case files, soon after the pact was announced, Global Green attempted to renege, revealing that despite signing on to the court-approved agreement that stipulated all funding would be provided within 10 days, it never had the money to cover its commitment. Furthermore, the nonprofit, which wasn’t required to show the court it was financially sound, asserted it could not effectively fundraise because Pitt’s ex-wife Angelina Jolie had, in unrelated court proceedings, then recently accused the actor of abusing her and their children.

It’s all a PR stunt at the expense of people who had their homes wiped out.

NEW ORLEANS – SEPTEMBER 11, 2005: The neighborhood of Chalmette sits underwater September 11, 2005, in St Bernard Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana. (Jerry Grayson/Helifilms Australia PTY Ltd/Getty Images)

First, Pitt comes charging in as the hero who will house these folks and save Mother Earth.

Then these crappy homes prove to be the opposite of sustainable, and rather than Brad Pitt using his millions to make it right, nothing happens for 16 years!

Then these con artists from Global Green pose as heroes with this settlement, earn all kinds of great press, but don’t have any money.

Does it surprise anyone that these Global Green hustlers have “long [been] a centerpiece of the entertainment industry’s philanthropic interest in environmentalism?”

What we have here is another reminder that our Green Masters do not care about us. They care only about feeling good and looking good, and making money.

The Green Utopia is, in fact, a nightmare to give terrible people control over our lives, lives they intend to make miserable as they enjoy the luxury of eight-foot walls, armed guards, and air conditioning.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

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