Liz McCartney and Zack Rosenburg
COO and CEO / SBP (originally St. Bernard Project)
Zack Rosenburg and Liz McCartney were among the tens of thousands of people who flocked to New Orleans to help the city following Hurricane Katrina. It was an experience that changed their lives forever.
The couple (now married) went home to Washington D.C. determined to raise some money and come back and make a difference. They did just that, launching the St. Bernard Project in March 2006 with the goal of helping communities recover from, and become more resilient to, disasters. The organization has since gone national, rebuilding homes for more than 1,660 families throughout the United States and Puerto Rico with the help of more than 180,000 volunteers.
Rebranded in 2016 as SBP, the organization’s latest project seeks to help address New Orleans’ lack of affordable housing, while also serving as an example of efficient construction. SBP broke ground in January on the first net-zero multifamily development in Louisiana, an affordable housing project aimed at veterans.
“We want to provide affordable and market-rate housing for our area veterans,” says Rosenburg. “So, we’re constructing 50 one- and two-bedroom units — less than a mile from the new V.A. —29 of which will be low-income and 21 market-rate. Thanks to a generous grant from Entergy, this will be an energy-efficient project on steroids, which means if tenants follow our recommendations they will be paying virtually nothing in energy bills.”
Tenants are expected to begin moving into the project in mid-November.
“Hopefully this will serve as an example of what can be done,” says McCartney. “We look forward to building more projects like this in New Orleans and other communities.”
