But as I understand it he is no longer living in his own house down in "The Lower 9th Ward". That place looks fixed-up but that whole area was the worst hit part 5 years ago.
I was looking at a whole load of pictures on Google Earth only the other day - still a real mess. So sad that these people seem locked into living a number of metres below sea level. My idea would be to re-house all these folks and turn this poorest of areas into a marina and give them a free boat and mooring rights too.
I live a number of metres (one, to be precise) below sea level. It doesn't bother me much, although I'm aware that my home might flood. Your idea won't work well in the Netherlands, since those parts that lie below sea level (about a third of its area) happen to be the most densely populated and economically must valuable. We rather pay for engineering solutions.
Of course global warming and sea level rise may force us to adopt your solution. When we run out of Lebensraum, we can always invade Germany.
regards,
Hein