“I can’t believe he’s been living like this,” Americorps volunteer Emily Dolin told Bill Capo, action reporter from 4WWL in New Orleans.

“I can’t believe that people have survived living this long. It’s outrageous in my mind. “I have no choice but to help him.”

A compassionate group of samaritans walked into United States Army veteran Henry Johnson’s house located in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward Tuesday afternoon and, with nothing but their hands, time and a few tools, started the process of saving his life by renovating his dire living situation.

With no power or water in a house that was down to its very frame — empty in ruin — the volunteers, some wearing masks, pieced the abode back together.

Johnson, now in a wheelchair, said he paid a contractor to fix the place up after it was flooded and torn apart by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He did some demolition, took the vet’s money, then disappeared without finishing the job.

“No water, no electricity, this has got to be pretty rough. Well, it’s been my life, World War II when I was a kid was rough, it was rough by birth, been rough from my birth to now,” he said. “I am enduring. I tried to get [the contractor] to rebuild it, okay, take it down and put it back together, all they did was rip off my money.”

“The next step is to get this place habitable so it’s not dangerous to him, and to try to get some resources in here to assist him in terms of what he’s going to need to be able to live,” Carol Ramm-Gramenz, one of the volunteers, told 4WWL.

A resident of NOLA for over forty years, Johnson served as a soldier in Europe during the 1950s.

To contribute to the cause, the agency’s phone number is (504) 277-6831. Their website is accessible by clicking here.