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Brad Pitt expanded his commitment to New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward today by announcing plans for a new community of homes in the area hardest-hit by the worst natural disaster in American history. He is partnering with Steve Bing in creating the 150 affordable and sustainable homes, which are the first effort of Pitt's "Make it Right" project.

Pitt announced his plan at today's meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, where he challenged attendees to join him and Bing in rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward. Pitt pledged to match $5 million in contributions to the project. Bing also pledged to match $5 million in contributions, for a total of $10,000,000 in matching funds.

"The heart and soul of New Orleans, specifically the people of the Lower 9th Ward, are paramount to this project," said Pitt. "The words of one elderly man who is determined to return to New Orleans led to the name of our organisation: he asked us, directly simply and profoundly, to help make it right. So that's what we're doing. We're going to help to make it right with 150 sustainable, affordable houses - houses that stand out for their design both aesthetically and structurally, so that these people can live in beautiful safe structures that respect their spirit and provide a good quality of life."

Pitt became a part-time resident of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. After seeing the devastation first hand and meeting with the hardest-hit residents, he began the Make It Right project to kick-start the rebuilding of the Lower 9th Ward.

The community Pitt announced today will address the dire need for single-family housing in the Lower 9th Ward and further spark rebuilding efforts in one of the richest cultural communities in America, an area that saw houses not just flooded by water, but swept off their foundations.

Core Make It Right team members also include Graft, an innovative architecture firm that Pitt has collaborated with on projects around the world; Cherokee Gives Back Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Cherokee, a firm that specialises in remediation and sustainable redevelopment of environmentally impaired properties; and Trevor Neilson and Nina Killeen, advisors to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

Last year, Pitt worked with Global Green in developing sustainable green multi-family housing in the Lower 9th Ward. In addition to replacing housing destroyed by Katrina, the sustainable design incorporated into the homes will help ease the financial burden of high energy costs and reduce their environmental impact.

The effort, which began with an architectural competition, sought to bring opportunity out of the devastation of Katrina by creating something better than was there before. Make It Right is taking this project a step further by committing to a community of safe, sustainable homes that incorporate the spirit and culture of the Lower 9th Ward and encourage it to flourish.