Katrina Home Drive

Katrina Home Drive

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Katrina Home Drive (KHD) was created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to meet the needs of those whose lives were devastated along the Gulf Coast. Kirby Sommers, Founder and President of this hurricane relief effort states: “We weren’t sophisticated in the realm of how a nonprofit is supposed to operate, or how to raise funds, all we knew was that people needed help and something needed to be done.” This sort of seat-of-the-pants management and volunteerism became the norm as we took the plunge and began to help on August 31, 2005.

Katrina survivors unexpectedly found themselves homeless and relocated across America, where from one moment to the next, the rapid changing landscape of familiarity disappeared. With virtually little training our volunteers rushed to their aid. Sommers typed up a flyer with the words: “We can help you,” and her own phone number emblazoned across the page. Thousands were printed by volunteers across the United States, making their way to the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas and to shelters everywhere where Katrina survivors took refuge.

Both The American Red Cross (ARC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), handed this flyer out to survivors as a housing resource (without first confirming that the person behind the effort was in Sommers' words "an ordinary person in New York City.") Both agencies were woefully unprepared to assist with the issue of housing at the time. The housing crisis remained a highly controversial issue and persists to this day.