Read This: Brad Pitt’s charity initiative still letting down Hurricane Katrina victims all these years later

It’s been almost 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, but residents of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward are still stuck dealing with the aftermath today. That’s in part due to Brad Pitt’s charity Make It Right, which brought in high-profile architects and pledged to rebuild eco-friendly homes for those who lost theirs in the storm. The houses that eventually went up were plagued by “rot, mold and structural defects,” and years of litigation against Pitt and his foundation has only led to confusion, obfuscation, and a whole lot of passing the buck, according to a new investigation from The Hollywood Reporter.

The story of why the plaintiffs have been left in the lurch with mortgages on decaying houses is a complicated one. When a class action lawsuit was brought against Make It Right in 2018, Pitt asked a judge to absolve him of personal liability and was denied. The foundation as a whole has fallen apart over the years, and “essentially no longer exists” outside of court, per THR.

Enter Global Green, another nonprofit organization that had sometimes collaborated with Make It Right in the wake of the storm. Global Green saw success in its own initiatives, including houses of its own in the Lower Ninth Ward that did not suffer the same complaints as the Make It Right homes. In the past, its honorary board has hosted celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Norman Lear, Yoko Ono, Ted Turner and Robert Redford.

Global Green proposed working with Pitt to provide a solution in the Make It Right case, offering to pay $20.5 million dollars in restitution to the plaintiffs. Except the organization completely missed the 10-day window to put up the money, because Global Green didn’t actually have $20.5 million to spare.

CEO Bill Bridge asserts that his organization never claimed to have that money ready to go (despite written evidence to the contrary) and that the organization was pressured by Pitt’s camp to sign off on something that didn’t paint the full picture of the available funds. Plus, the organization argues, Pitt’s negative reputation in the wake of abuse accusations from his ex-wife Angelina Jolie has only made it harder to secure donations.

Pitt’s camp, meanwhile, insists that signing the settlement agreement was on Global Green, and objected to any characterization that it was Pitt’s fault the money couldn’t be raised. “It’s sad that Global Green would blame others for their own inability to raise the funds that they had already claimed were obtained,” a spokesperson for the actor stated to THR.

For their part, the lawyer for the class-action plaintiffs observed that Pitt was the one to advocate for Global Green’s involvement in the case and that the Oscar winner had apparently testified in court that “he was essentially too busy to participate in any fundraising efforts to help fund the settlement.” (“Brad was never under any obligation to donate his own money, attend fundraisers or solicit contributions from donors,” his spokesperson responded, adding that he had donated significant time and funds to the cause over the years.)

All this means is that the lawsuit, nearly two decades in the making, is back on, with a new contempt hearing added to the schedule for Global Green. Meanwhile, many residents are still stuck living in substandard accommodations. “Am I surprised that it all went south? No. Am I surprised that things got convoluted, like some confederacy-of-dunces sequel? No,” Linda Santi, one of the Make It Right homeowners, told THR. “Am I disappointed? Yes.”

For more details on this tangled mess, check out the full story from The Hollywood Reporter here.