Homes built to help victims of Hurricane Katrina are at the center of a messy dispute between Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation and Hollywood eco-charity Global Green. How good intentions and bad decisions led to an unfunded $20.5 million settlement:
“This has been one long nightmare,” says Albert Matthews, noting that his 91-year-old mother, Marion Bryan, paid the initial deposit on her new house in 2008. He says the residence became so badly compromised that Make It Right built a second one, which also had serious problems. So too, he claims, did a third, constructed by the organization in 2014. Unlike many residents, who were forced to live in substandard conditions, Bryan has stayed with her son.
Pitt’s team rejects any notion that the actor or his reputation are at all to blame for what’s transpired, contending that Global Green is solely responsible for making a promise it didn’t keep. “Brad had supported Global Green many years ago, so when they approached his team stating ‘$20.5M in funding’ had been secured by their ‘generous donors,’ there was interest in considering their proposal,” a Pitt spokesperson at Hiltzik Strategies responded toin a written statement.
The Make It Right initiative tapped star architects like Frank Gehry, Shigeru Ban and Thom Mayne to design more than 100 modern and sustainable houses in the Lower Ninth. Many were later beset by problems including structural defects and mold.In time, though, Make It Right’s beneficence encountered stark reality, both for the new homeowners — these weren’t gifts; the residents had taken out mortgages — as well as for Pitt.
Global Green USA — an affiliate of Green Cross International, the charity founded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993 whose worldwide mission framework includes aiding people affected by environmental catastrophes — also actively participated in the area’s hurricane recovery alongside Make It Right.
“The lack of an independent audit is not a minor detail,” explains CharityWatch executive director Laurie Styron. “Charities often omit a lot of unflattering information about themselves in their tax filings that can only be discovered by analyzing their audits,” she says. “For example, audits are required to include information about any legal issues a charity is having if they are likely to result in a material financial liability.
Pitt attended a private Global Green dinner held in Beverly Hills with members of its board as well as its donors in September.
Pitt’s business associates welcomed the idea of assistance from Global Green, in part because the star had a history of working on New Orleans efforts in tandem with the nonprofit’s previous CEO. In documentation obtained by, Bridge also repeatedly stated that he’d lined up support from major corporate partners for philanthropic work in the Lower Ninth Ward, eventually naming Wells Fargo, BlackRock, UBS and the Walmart Foundation in writing as “funders who have committed.
Pitt’s team flatly denies this. His spokesperson insists, “Counsel for both the plaintiffs and defendants followed up with extensive diligence over several months. A written settlement was created, signed by Global Green and approved by all parties including the Court, which required Global Green to pay the full $20.5 million within 10 business days of the agreement’s execution or otherwise risk being held in contempt of court.
“Global Green never saw itself as a third party that intended to inherit the entire burden and risks associated with what has been eight years of litigation between the plaintiffs and defendants, but rather to operate as a good faith vehicle using our name, brand, and history in New Orleans to help raise the funds to end the dispute in the best interests of those residents who live, or have lived, in the Make It Right Foundation homes in New Orleans,” Bridge wrote.
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