In New Orleans, an empty building becomes a free store — and roller skating rink

A graffiti-covered former Family Dollar in the Lower Ninth Ward is now the New Orleans Free Store. Catie Dull/NPR hide caption

New Orleans — Scars from Hurricane Katrina are still visible in the Lower Ninth Ward more than 20 years later: empty lots where people never rebuilt their homes and boarded up storefronts where businesses never came back.

On one corner, an old Family Dollar store stands covered in graffiti. It looks abandoned. But twice a week people line up outside, and when the doors open, they rush in to find racks full of clothing and shelves piled high with household goods, toys, food, books — even packs of birth control. Mattresses and furniture line the walls and there are bins full of purses and shoes.

And it's all free for the taking at the New Orleans Free Store , where Ernestine Lane is shopping with a friend from church. They're trying on boots and winter wear even though it's mid-August and pushing 100 degrees. "The problem is, we're not used to cold weather," says Lane, "so when it gets cold, you're naked."

In this heat, several industrial fans cool the space: there's no air conditioning in the 9,000 square foot building. Lane says people might be skeptical at first, because of how the free store looks from the street. "They see the graffiti on the outside of the building and it's a misconception. I say 'Go in, there's blessings in there, go in.'"

"People who are struggling don't just want the bare necessities," says Dan Bingler, founder of the Greater New Orleans Caring Collective , a local mutual-aid organization that runs the free store. "They want nice things, too, because they deserve nice things, too," he adds. "People want comfort. People want care. People want fun objects in their house just for the sake of those existing."

Dan Bingler turned the empty Family Dollar into a free store three years ago. He thinks the idea could be replicated in empty storefronts across the country. Catie Dull/NPR hide caption

Bingler, who is 42-years-old, has a history degree and used to work as a server and bartender in fine dining restaurants. When he was sent home at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bingler says he started organizing grocery deliveries to older folks in the community, meal delivery to families, and help with laundry for people who couldn't safely get to a laundromat. "It blew up locally," he says.