The Background

So here's a new blog for our readers. This blog is focused on the Fuller Center For Housing Blitz Build project that will be happening here in Shreveport in exactly two weeks! In five days time people from Shreveport and all over the nation will work together to build nine new homes and rehabilitate five more. Last year the group built 10 new homes in the neighborhood during the Blitz.

In the photo above you can already see the work starting on the plumbing and foundations.

A little background to get you started. I am a photojournalist here at The Times and have been for nearly six years. In my time here I have seen a lot of changes in Shreveport, but none have been as drastic and uplifting as the change on "The Hill" in Allendale.

When I got here the back corner of the Allendale neighborhood was filled with dilapidated shotgun houses and was among the worst neighborhoods in the city. Through the efforts of Community Renewal and the Fuller Center the area has done a 180 in many ways and is now becoming a vibrant, beautiful neighborhood full of wonderful people.

In the next two weeks I will be introducing you to the new homeowners. They are already hard at work putting in their 350 "sweat equity" hours on the site and in the Fuller Center office. As the blitz build begins I will swap back and forth from my cameras to my tool belt and at the end of each day will bring you a report from the site as well as photos and at the end of the week a time-lapse video of the project.