"Flip This House" Katrina-style

The members of the Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tennessee, like many other churches, was involved in many activities to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. They wanted to go one step further and give one lucky couple a fresh start with a home to call their own. It apparently never occurred to anyone that once the couple could call the home their own, they could do whatever they wanted to with it.

To that end, the church members set up a committee and conducted interviews of several dozen couples. Joshua Thompson and Delores Thompson were one of these couples and now the church says “They actually begged for the home.” The Thompsons told the committee that they had not only lost their New Orleans home, they had also lost their jobs and everything they owned, and wanted to resettle in Memphis. Delores told the committee that her 2 teenage children were anxious to get back in school.

The Thompsons took possession of the $75,000 home, free and clear, in February. They never moved in. In September, they sold the property for $88,000 and moved back to New Orleans.  Delores Thompson claims that she only receivedr $60,000 of that amount.

After the Thompsons agreed to be interviewed by Fox 13, a shocked Memphis watched an ungrateful Joshua Thompson tell  TV reporter, Heather Crawford,  “Take it up with God,” when he was questioned about the sale. A video clip of this statemetn which outraged many people is on Fox 13's site.  Delores Thompson said that she didn’t like the area nor did she know anyway and that was why she decided not to move in and to put the house up for sale.