NEW ORLEANS — Twice a week, residents line up outside a graffiti-covered former Family Dollar in the Lower Ninth Ward. Inside, they find shelves and racks stocked with donated clothing, furniture, mattresses, toys, books, food, shoes and household supplies — all free. The 9,000-square-foot building is home to the New Orleans Free Store, a project of the Greater New Orleans Caring Collective. Dan Bingler, the group’s founder, began operating the store more than three years ago after securing a rent-free agreement with the property owner. The collective pays the utilities while the owner keeps the building in use until it is ready for redevelopment. The arrangement has transformed an otherwise vacant storefront into a neighborhood resource in a part of New Orleans still marked by Hurricane Katrina’s destruction. Empty lots and shuttered businesses remain common in the Lower Ninth Ward, where residents say access to groceries and medicine is limited. “It’s a beautiful resource for the community,” said Chrishana Simon, who learned to roller skate at the store. The building’s polished concrete floor serves as a makeshift rink, with skates available to borrow during free skate nights. The store’s offerings extend beyond donated goods. The collective provides free sexually transmitted infection testing, food distributions and basic medical care. It also holds art classes and free punk concerts. Industrial fans cool the building because it does not have air conditioning. For Hilsa Rodriguez, who lives nearby and has six children, the donations help stretch a household budget. During a recent visit, her stepdaughters looked for school hair accessories, clothing, towels and shoes. “To have all the donations that they have here, we’re very grateful,” Rodriguez said. Store volunteers say the need is especially acute in the Lower Ninth Ward. Phyllis “Queen” Matthews, a retired social worker, helps organize clothing and is searching for a truck that can collect large donations. Erin Sims, who grew up in the neighborhood, operates a hot dog stand at the store and remembers leaving New Orleans after Katrina, when floodwaters submerged her home. Sims said it took a year and a half to rebuild, but the neighborhood never fully recovered. “We still have a lot of abandoned places,” she said. “You can’t get groceries. Even to get medicines you have to go to the Walgreens or Walmart. There’s nothing down in the Lower Ninth Ward for that.” Bingler describes the area as Louisiana’s top food desert and says the free store is intended to help close some of that gap while strengthening the neighborhood’s ability to respond to future disasters. The collective plans to provide hurricane relief and potentially use the building as a shelter. “When something happens again, number one is we’re closer. We’re more prepared,” Bingler said. Even in a future emergency, he added, the space could remain a gathering place — “even if it’s just skating with a generator.” Bingler believes the model could be replicated in vacant storefronts elsewhere, turning underused commercial properties into places that provide material support, social connection and emergency capacity rather than simply sitting empty.