Brad Pitt building green homes in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Expanding on a promise he made nearly two months ago, actor Brad Pitt said Monday he expects to have families in 150 newly created homes in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward by the end of next summer -- but he asked for help to make the dream a reality.

"To build those 150 homes, we need the help of the American people," he said in a news conference Monday. "We need to all join together to do this. There is no reason why we can't do a thousand homes."

Pitt announced in September that he was partnering with film producer Steve Bing to build "affordable and sustainable homes" in the Lower 9th Ward, an area of the city that Hurricane Katrina devastated in 2005. Pitt and Bing have also each pledged $5 million to the rebuilding project.

The 150 eco-friendly homes mark the first initiative of Pitt's "Make it Right" project, aimed at redeveloping the Lower 9th Ward. Watch Pitt campaign for improvements »

Once marked by dense housing, the Lower 9th Ward was heavily flooded during Hurricane Katrina, and afterward most of the area was razed. There has been little rebuilding done there since the storm, although some people have been living in trailers in the area.

"You're going to see life coming in," the 43-year-old actor told NBC's "Today" show. "We'll have people in homes by the end of next summer."

On Monday, Pitt walked through the neighborhood where the houses are to be built. Housing forms draped in pink tarps filled the area.

Later, he explained the rationale behind the bright hue.

"My thinking why it's pink is because it screams the loudest," he said at the news conference. "It says people are coming back."

He noted that others have suggested the color evokes the American dream of "little pink houses," as described in John Mellencamp's song of the same name, or that the houses were the "pink elephant" in the room: "That at the federal level it's business as usual. ... Down here we're still in limbo. We're still waiting."

Pitt said he welcomes more donations. "This is really an adopt-a-house campaign," he told NBC. "I'm asking for foundations, for high-network individuals, for church groups, for corporations to come in and adopt a house. Basically $150,000 will get a family back into their home."

Pitt said 13 architects have helped in the project. He said design requirements for the homes were "affordability, sustainability, safety -- and that they be beautiful," according to The Associated Press.

In the news conference Monday, Robert Green -- a New Orleans resident who lost his 73-year-old mother and 3-year-old granddaughter on August 29, 2005, the day Katrina hit -- expressed his gratitude for what Pitt and "Make it Right" are trying to do.

"We get a chance to bring our community back," he said. "This is something we need, something to spearhead the change that's going to make things right for our community again."

Pitt's work is not the only high-profile rebuilding effort in New Orleans.

Jazz musician Branford Marsalis and musician-actor Harry Connick Jr. have teamed with Habitat for Humanity to build a "Musicians' Village" in the Upper 9th Ward. Construction began in March 2006. More than 40 families now live in homes in the village, according to the Habitat for Humanity Web site.

Pitt and Angelina Jolie own their own house in New Orleans, a French Quarter mansion the pair purchased in early 2007.

"[New Orleans] has an energy like no other place," Pitt told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in May. "I've got to get me some of it. I absolutely love it there." E-mail to a friend

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