Make It Right’s mission was to build 150 well-designed, green, affordable homes in the Lower 9th Ward, the area hardest hit by Katrina. As of 2016, the group reported spending $26.8 million building 109 homes, fueling the most visible recovery effort in an area still reeling from the storm.

But Allen and 11 other residents who spoke to NBC News, 10 of them on the record, say that many of the Make It Right homes are rotting and dangerous. They complain of mold and collapsing structures, electrical fires and gas leaks. They say the houses were built too quickly, with low-quality materials, and that the designs didn’t take into account New Orleans’ humid, rainy climate.

“This has been years of ongoing lies and broken promises,” Allen said in a recent interview in which she detailed Make It Right’s pledges and failures to repair her home.

As the problems worsened, the organization has all but disappeared. Make It Right hasn’t built a home, filed tax forms or updated its website since 2015. The downtown New Orleans office has been closed, the staff has been cut to a handful and residents say their calls go unreturned. While Pitt ordered inspections for the homes in 2016, according to a spokesperson, residents say they’re still waiting for the results and for much-needed repairs.

Linda Jackson, a longtime resident and founder of the Lower 9th Ward Homeowners Association, a group that advocates affordable homeownership and resident-driven redevelopment, said the majority of Make It Right’s homes are now vacant. “It’s just not working out,” she said.

Some residents have stayed quiet about the problems out of loyalty to a star actor who brought attention to the need to rebuild, while others have been silenced by nondisclosure agreements that Pitt’s foundation required them to sign in exchange for settlements or repairs. But residents are growing increasingly frustrated — and vocal. Last week, two residents sued Pitt and Make It Right, accusing the organization of breach of contract and fraud for selling them “defectively and improperly constructed" homes.

A spokesperson for Pitt declined to comment on the lawsuit but released the following statement on Pitt’s behalf in response to questions from NBC News: “We began an extensive review of homes just after the tenth anniversary of Katrina. Thanks to the dedication of the MIR team, we have been coordinating repairs of homes experiencing problems since early 2018 and I have total faith in our team on the ground to see this through.

“I made a promise to the folks of the Lower Ninth to help them rebuild — it is a promise I intend to keep.”

Make It Right’s corporate headquarters and last known board members did not return calls for comment.

‘THEY’RE STRINGING PEOPLE ALONG’

Allen, 35, moved into her gray, two-story Make It Right house on stilts in October 2011. Within weeks, she said she noticed cream-colored mushrooms popping up from her bedroom walls and kitchen outlets. Photos from that winter show mold creeping on her carpets and the mushrooms protruding from wood rotting under the siding. By 2012, Allen, who works from home as a health insurance administrator, said she began having headaches and felt tired all the time, symptoms reflected in a doctor’s note from August 2012.