Philanthropist Helps New Orleans' Residents

Leonard Riggio, the chairman of Barnes & Noble, plans to spend $20 million from his family's charitable foundation on the effort to help New Orleans' residents. Residents who participate in the program will receive a new home at no cost, provided they surrender their flooded, uninhabitable house -- or the vacant lot where it once stood -- to Project Home Again, the nonprofit that Riggio spun out of his foundation.

The charity will give each family a mortgage equal to the difference between their new and old homes and then steadily forgive the mortgage over a period of five years, after which the family will own the house outright.