[FoCHAT] URGENT: Rep. Waters & HUD Officials--Road Home Cong. Hearing in NOLA, Thurs. Please go or send an email today!

Tue Aug 18 08:54:34 CDT 2009

Dear Friend of CHAT and Gentilly Residents,

The email that I am requesting you to send TODAY is urgent.

 If you can't send it today, then send it later, but today is much better.

Please address it to Rep. Waters, a great friend in Congress of Louisiana's post-hurricane recovery and HUD officials, who will be at the hearing.

For example,

Dear Rep. Waters and HUD Officials,

I am a Road Home applicant. 

AND then mention any of the following that apply to you or concern you.

TODAY: please send me a message to me to forward to Rep. Waters and HUD officials.

You can just respond to this email or send to mehrlich8 at yahoo.com and to CHAT's email address chatlra at yahoo.com

Please state your satisfaction with the Road Home Program

and any of your concerns about one or more of the following:

1. Is the amount of your RH grant causing you a hardship compared to your repair or rebuilding costs?

If you are low-income, it is important to say this.

If you are not low-income, 

but your RH grant was not enough to allow you to complete repair or rebuilding 

or you have repaired but the small size of your grant has caused you a financial hardship, 

please say so and explain.

2. Elevation grant program.

Did you get enough funding to elevate your house?

Are you having trouble or unable to elevate your house because of delays in funding? Please explain. 

3. Do you still want a chance for an independent and new appeal of mistakes by the RH in calculating your grant?

Do you want fair and publicized rules for how they consider the evidence and decide the appeal?

Did you not have a chance to appeal or complete your appeal? Why?

Do you want an opportunity to submit evidence and you did not have a chance to do that during your appeal or dispute resolution?

Did you have trouble appealing or disputing because you did not have a copy of your file?

Are you appealing or did you appeal or dispute your grant amount? Why? 

Was your appeal or dispute denied but you had little or no explanation or a wrong explanation? Please describe.

Did you want to go to court about mistakes in your RH grant but can't because the closing documents say you can't?

4. Did RH make a mistake in determining your pre-storm value or cost of damage?

Please explain.

5. Address any your concerns you may have about the rules of the RH to officials of HUD.

6. Please comment on the importance of the HUD Inspector General

        interviewing applicants with RH problems and not mostly just RH and HUD officials and contractor representatives 

        not delaying completion of the investigation

as part of their investigation of our RH complaint.

v     Click here to read the CHAT complaint to the HUD Office of the Inspector General (HUD OIG) Accepted for Audit in February 

Do you think it is important for the inspectors to give at least 50 applicants who have unresolved problems with their grant calculations a chance to submit evidence of their problems? Why?

Congressional Field Hearing in New Orleans on Thurs. 
If you can attend, please do!

Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity 
To Hold Field Hearings on Post-Katrina New Orleans 
Washington, DC – Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), chairwoman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, today announced that the subcommittee will hold two days of hearings in New Orleans. The first hearing will focus on the Road Home program. The second hearing will focus on the status of the “Big Four” public housing developments, two housing programs which are critical to the City’s recovery. 
Witnesses will include the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the Mayor of New Orleans, legal aid experts, housing advocates, housing developers, residents of low-income housing, and homeowners dealing with the Road Home program. Chairwoman Waters held similar hearings at the start of the 110th Congress. As a result of those hearings, she introduced H.R. 1227, the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007, legislation which passed the House of Representatives on March 21, 2007 on a bipartisan vote of 302 to 125. She plans to introduce a similar bill following these hearings.
Who:               House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity
What:             Hearing entitled “Implementation of the Road Home Program Four Years after Hurricane Katrina”
When:            Thursday, August 20, 2009
1:00 PM 
Where:           Lawless Memorial Chapel, Dillard University, 2601 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans

Who:               House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity
What:             Hearing entitled “Status of the ‘Big Four’ Four Years After Hurricane Katrina”
When:            Friday, August 21, 2009
10:00 AM 
Where:           Lawless Memorial Chapel, Dillard University, 2601 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans     
Witnesses to be announced.  

Rep. Waters introduced legislation in 2007 to "improve the [Road Home] Program" and require reporting to Congress.

Thank you for any help you can give by sending this email to mehrlich8 at yahoo.com; chatlra at yahoo.com   (today, if possible) and/or coming to the hearing.

Melanie Ehrlich
Founder, Citizens' Road Home Action Team (CHAT)
Member, LRA Housing Task Force
http://chatushome.com
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