St. Thomas Development
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The St. Thomas Housing Project was one of the Housing Projects of New Orleans located in the Irish Channel neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was bordered by St. Thomas Street to the south, a service alley between Constance and Laurel Streets to the north, Felicity Street to the east and Josephine Street to the west. It was built in the 1941, and originally consisted of 120 buildings covering almost ten full city blocks. Under segregated housing laws in place until the 1960s it was occupied by white tenants.
St. Thomas became one of the city's most dangerous developments by the late 1980s. In 1996, the Housing Authority of New Orleans received a HUD Hope VI grant to demolish and rebuild the area. This grant included the costs to relocate the nearly 3,000 residents to other properties. By the end of 2001 all of the buildings except a few had been demolished to create a mixed income neighborhood named "River Garden." A section of Chippewa Street was re-aligned in the process. Also, a new Wal-Mart superstore was constructed on long-vacant property one block south of the former project site.
Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun, lived in St. Thomas Housing Project in the 1980s. While living there, she became pen pals with convicted killer Patrick Sonnier. Her experiences with Sonnier and other inmates on death row served as the basis for the feature film and opera Dead Man Walking. Scenes in the movie version of Dead Man Walking were filmed on location at St. Thomas; Prejean was portrayed by Susan Sarandon.
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