The Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans, especially north of Claiborne Avenue, experienced the most significant housing damage after the levee failure caused by Hurricane Katrina. It’s in that neighborhood that a first-of-its-kind house can be found—a house designed to float 12 feet above its foundation, the same height as Katrina floodwaters. More than a decade after Katrina, residents are still in the process of rebuilding what was lost. A struggle throughout the city is the need for low-cost housing, pitted up against the high cost of building a…
