Mid-City Neighborhood Organization

The Old City Building Center was created to address recovery in New Orleans by: encouraging sustainable home renovation and rebuilding by ensuring a stable supply of appropriate, affordable building materials for homeowners; providing space and expertise for ‘Do It Yourself’ workshops; installing a contractor networking and referral system; creating a network of small businesses and technical assistance providers; establishing high-quality training and job placement programs for adults and at-risk youth, and lastly creating a neighborhood information, meeting, and technology space to strengthen the voices of our community. GRAND OPENING JANUARY 1, 2008

In the absence of government funds, we are doing this for ourselves. Within one year, the OCBC will support itself through depot sales, rental income, and program services.

About OCBC:

Old City Building Center (OCBC) was begun in Fall 2006 by members of the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization in consultation with MercyCorps International to engage in historic housing preservation, economic/workforce development, and environmental conservation through building materials salvage and re-use. A business plan was developed and a suitable depot building was identified which also accommodates a small business center, multiple types of training areas, and a neighborhood hub. Operations are supervised by the Rebuild Committee of MCNO with programmatic participation from MCNO’S Economic Development Committee. OCBC is a sub-entity of MCNO’s 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The programs of the OCBC reflect the community’s needs for high-quality, well-coordinated delivery of rebuilding and economic resources to develop self-sustaining long-term stability.

Needs that our organization works to address / specific populations that our agency serves:
We must take control of our situation and recover ourselves to be self-sufficient communities working together. We need to overcome the economic, physical and mental challenges of recovery that are preventing our working poor and middle class from returning and regaining normal daily lives. We need to deliver a holistic package to support people in need. The community needs small businesses to return normal services, day-to-day necessities and neighborhood fabric. We have identified confluent needs: at-risk people are not adequately connected to the recovery economy, preservation, and green building efforts; local contractors and small businesses need reliable connections to a trained local workforce; trainees need connections to satisfying jobs; and local contractors and small businesses need connections to each other to overcome neighborhood, race, class, and trade barriers and post-Katrina isolation to expand capacity to reduce reliance on out-of-town contractors, and to speed and complete rebuilding projects.

Despite the fact that the Mid-City neighborhood is largely a historic area, and has some of the grandest streets and homes in the City, there are consistent indications of persistent poverty and social distress in the neighborhood. Over 72% of the occupied units in the neighborhood were rental households (as compared to 54% citywide and 32% statewide). Of households with children, 47% of children lived without one parent present (compared to 29% statewide and 23% nationwide). Average household income for the area was 73% of the City’s, 70% of the State’s and 56% of the nation’s. Almost 33% of the residents of Mid-City were living in poverty, compared to less than 20% for the State and 13% for the nation. Also troubling was the fact that more than 40% of children under the age of 5 who lived in the neighborhood prior to Katrina were in poverty, compared to less than half that number for the nation’s population as a whole.

The Old City Building Center works to address the needs of Mid-City and Greater New Orleans. The Center occupies a well-known, highly visible local building that is centrally accessible to the whole city. The populations that we serve include but are not limited to: returning, rebuilding residents of New Orleans whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Katrina; established, recovering, and/or new local small businesses, artisans, and entrepreneurs; businesses who hire graduates of our training programs; and for- and non-profit rebuilding organizations who need access to building materials, technology, interface, informed consumers, and skilled labor. Our staffing organization’s mission is to meaningfully address training and support needs for our community members who are transitional returning residents, unemployed, under-employed, at-risk youth, parolees, recovering established small businesses, and upcoming entrepreneurs, without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, national origin or any other criteria protected by law.

The Old City Building Center
4201 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119

Recycled, Lagniappe, & Green
Building Materials
25-95% off retail prices
Depot & Deconstruction Services
Do-It-Yourself Restoration, Renovation & Green Classes
Donate your usable building materials for tax credits

Small Business Center
Technology & Builder’s Resource Center
Job Connections Database
Contractor Concierge
Local Business Networks
Louisiana Small Business Development Center
Nat’l Assn. Of Minority Contractors Business Incubator
Training programs: construction Workforce skills Entrepreneurship / Business & Personal Finance

Rebuilding better together

For more information please contact Dawn Falgout-Loebig (504) 495-7904 / oldcitybuildingcenter@gmail.com

Grand Opening First Quarter 2008 - Check back for more details!