Former President Jimmy Carter and singer Harry Connick Junior are in New Orleans to support the construction of houses in an area of the city that has been slow to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

The two are supporters of Habitat for Humanity and planned Wednesday to help on a construction project in the Upper 9th Ward.

Carter and Connick expressed their enthusiasm for the work under way.

Habitat has been a prominent face of the rebuilding effort since the storm hit nearly three years ago. One of their projects is the Musicians' Village.

Volunteers regularly work among the candy-colored houses already built at the Musicians' Village, a pet project of Connick's in partnership with Habitat.