Hollywood star Brad Pitt plans to help at least 150 families, whose homes have been devastated after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, expanding on a promise he made nearly two months ago, CNN reported.

"To build those houses, we need the help of the American people," the actor said in a news conference on Monday.

"These families are going to see life coming in. We'll have people in homes by the end of next summer," he added.

Pitt announced in September that he was partnering with film producer Steve Bing to construct "affordable and sustainable homes" in the Lower 9th Ward, an area of the city that Hurricane Katrina devastated in 2005.

The two have also each pledged USD 5 M to the rebuilding project.
The 150 eco-friendly homes mark the first initiative of Pitt's "Make it Right" project, aimed at redeveloping the hurricane-hit area.

There has been little rebuilding done there since the storm, although some people have been living in trailers in the area.
Pitt said 13 architects have helped in the project.

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.

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

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