Brad Pitt and his Make It Right Foundation, who were sued in 2018 for poor homes they built in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, settled their lawsuit for $20.5 million.
The preliminary settlement, which has yet to be approved by a judge, will be funded by Global Green, a nonprofit environmental organization, which has agreed to the settlement that will fix the deficiencies in the homes.
According to The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, the program’s 107 homeowners will each receive $25,000 in compensation for past repairs.
“I am incredibly grateful for Global Green’s willingness to step up and provide this important support to the Lower Ninth families,” Pitt said in a statement on Thursday.
“We worked together in the early days after Katrina and we are very happy with Global Green’s generous continued commitment to address the challenges surrounding these homes and others in need. Hopefully, this agreement will allow everyone to look ahead to other opportunities to continue to strengthen this proud community in the future.”
Residents of homes built by the Make It Right Foundation have sued the Oscar winner and his associates for flawed design and construction practices, breach of contract and fraud.
While the actor was the face of the organization, helping to raise millions of dollars to build the homes that sold for about $150,000 each, he passed day-to-day responsibilities to the foundation, only stepping back to help when Make It Right proved unable to maintain the deficient homes, which ultimately led to the lawsuit.
“They believed in Brad Pitt. They believed in the dream he sold them… Unfortunately, they got a bunch of broken promises… living in rotten houses that had to be razed and started over,” attorney Ron Austin told Newsnation’s Ashleigh Banfield in February. .
Pitt had previously filed for removal from the lawsuit, saying he could not be held responsible for the actual construction of the project.
“Brad was a co-founder, but he hadn’t been on the board for years,” a source previously told Vidak For Congress. “When the problems arose, he promised to help put it right.”