[FoCHAT] CHATNews: Rep. Waters' Field Hearing on RH- Compare 3 Articles

[Melanie Ehrlich]

 Aug. 27, 2009 
Dear Friend of CHAT. 
 Three Articles About the Field Hearing Organized by Rep. Waters, a Friend of S. Louisiana Hurricane Victims
Thank you very much to all who sent emails for the written testimony!
1. Note items in red, which suggest that the effectiveness of the excellent emails sent in answer to my request. I will post CHAT’s written testimony, including those letters made anonymous, in subsequent newsletters. A CHAT member who attended the hearing told me that it was explicitly mentioned that the CHAT written testimony would be posted as part of this hearing and that the information provided by applicants and advocates for or at this meeting was very helpful. 
However, the highlighted items were deleted from the final (Friday) version of the article.
  
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/08/rep_maxine_waters_asks_for_fla.html
 Rep. Maxine Waters asks for flat additional payment to Road Home grant recipients
by David Hammer, The Times-Picayune 
Thursday August 20, 2009, 2:39 PM
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., called on the state of Louisiana to come up with a flat amount of money to give to Road Home grant recipients to make up for a gap in financing "that everyone agrees occurred," but her proposal could be hard to implement.
Waters said she was committed to going back to Washington after the August recess and figuring out what congressional action is needed to allow the Louisiana Recovery Authority the flexibility to alter Road Home rules to make the payments possible.
At a field hearing today at Dillard University on the Road Home's multitude of problems, Waters challenged LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development representative Fred Tombar to come up with a way to expedite more payments to homeowners who received Road Home grants, but are still struggling to rebuild.
She noted that the state still hasn't decided how to distribute about $1.5 billion from the $10.3 billion the state had received from Congress for the Road Home.
"We can't tell you how much (to give), but we don't want another set of rules to put these people through 1,000 hoops," Waters said. "Don't you bring me any $2,000, OK? It has to be significant to help people who are struggling."
Rainwater knows the financing gap is a problem. A recent study for the LRA by demographer Greg Rigamer found the total gap between the true cost of rebuilding and the Road Home and insurance payments paid to 125,000 grant recipients is somewhere between $1.6 billion and $2.3 billion.
But after the meeting, Rainwater said the kind of change Waters is proposing would require sweeping changes in the federal Stafford Act that governs disaster aid, something Louisiana has requested for years, to no avail. It would also require the federal government to waive some other rules it's been unwilling to ease since Katrina, including a prohibition against duplicating other federal benefits.
He also suggested that Waters' plan to give a flat amount to every qualified Road Home applicant, regardless of their financial situation, would actually undermine the effort to help poorer families. To make flat payments, Rainwater said the state would likely have to seek a waiver so it would no longer have to give at least half of the Road Home dollars to low- or moderate-income families.
Earlier in the day, Rainwater had announced a state plan to use $600 million of the left-over Road Home money to address underpayments to lower-income Road Home applicants, but Waters' idea pushed for something more. It could also disrupt the LRA's current plans for nearly all of the remaining $1.5 billion in the Road Home budget.
In addition to the $600 million he wants to distribute to 20,000 lower-income homeowners by eliminating a $50,000 cap on special income-based grants, Rainwater said this morning that he expects $500 million to go to a few thousand applicants who are still waiting for grants, another $85 million to go to applicants who sold their home in the first two years after the storm and $245 million on demolishing thousands of blighted homes that applicants sold to the Road Home. 
In spite of his skepticism after the meeting, Rainwater assured Waters while he sat before her that he was on board with her flat-payment concept.
"Congresswoman, I will send out the money faster than ...," the state recovery director said as the audience drowned him out in cheers.
"That almost justifies the trip down here," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who, along with Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, and Rep. Ahn "Joseph" Cao, R-New Orleans, joined Waters at the field hearing.
Green also pressed Rainwater on the disparities between the awards received by black applicants and white applicants. The Times-Picayune reported in 2007 that the program's rules set grants based mostly on pre-storm value, and because home values are typically lower in majority black neighborhoods than in majority white ones, the formula caused black families, on average, to get less money for a similar house.
Green asked Rainwater if that was true. He said it was.
Green said it was time for Rainwater to use his powers to rectify the disparate impact of the program's rules.
"Hurricanes don't discriminate, and we shouldn't discriminate in the rebuilding," Green said.
The problem was exemplified by Lillian Baker, an octagenarian whose home in Pontchartrain Park, a historically black middle-class subdivision in New Orleans, was destroyed. The Road Home said her estimated cost of damage was $209,000, but her pre-storm value was only $84,000, and based on that figure, her final grant came out to just $54,000.
"The Road Home program was supposed to help us get back into our home, but it only created more stress at a time when stress wasn't needed," she said in testimony read by her daughter, Shari Baker.
Green also asked if anything could be done to make ICF International, the original Road Home contractor, pay for some of the program's problems.
Rainwater said the LRA is going back and looking at the mistakes ICF made and "putting together a lawsuit."
Rainwater said the state paid ICF $897 million before its contract ended in June, but before the firm left, it was fined several million dollars for failure to meet various performance measures.
Ironically, Tombar, who is now an aide to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and came to the meeting to speak for the federal overseers of Road Home dollars, was a spokesman for ICF's Road Home program during its first year, in 2006 and 2007. Nobody mentioned his previous role during the hearing.
 
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1250832690199220.xml&coll=1
Road Home approves rebuilding extension
LRA chief says he'll try to offer more cash
Friday, August 21, 2009 
By David Hammer
Staff writer
Just before a high-temperature congressional hearing on the Road Home program Thursday, the head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority announced that changes have been made to two major rules affecting recipients who are still having trouble rebuilding. 
 
LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater said a change has already been approved to extend a three-year time limit for grant recipients who can show they need more time to rebuild. 
Rainwater also said he would seek approval from his board next month to offer more money to about 20,000 low- to moderate-income homeowners who qualify. He plans to make $600 million available for that purpose, which would mean an average grant of $30,000. 
 
A few hours later, at a congressional field hearing at Dillard University, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., urged the state to use about $1.5 billion left in the Road Home's $10.3 billion budget simply to give all eligible applicants a flat additional payment. 
 
Sitting before a tough-talking Waters and a partisan audience, Rainwater said he was ready to help. 
"We can't tell you how much (to give), but we don't want another set of rules to put these people through a thousand hoops," Waters said. "Don't you bring me any $2,000, OK? It has to be significant to help people who are struggling." 
 
"Congresswoman, I will send out the money faster than . . ." Rainwater said as the audience drowned him out in cheers. 
 
But after his testimony, he said in an interview that Waters' suggestion would require massive changes to federal laws that the state has been trying to change for years. 
He also said Waters' plan to give a flat amount to every qualified Road Home applicant, regardless of their financial situation, would actually undermine the effort to help poorer families. To make flat payments, Rainwater said the state would likely have to seek a waiver so it would no longer have to give at least half of the Road Home dollars to low- or moderate-income families. 
 
To make the extra money available, Rainwater wants to eliminate the $50,000 cap on the Road Home's Additional Compensation Grants. Such grants have been offered to low- to moderate-income families as a way to cover some of the gap between home values and rebuilding costs. 
 
However, a recent study by demographer Greg Rigamer found the additional grants were falling far short of making up the difference. The analysis showed the total gap between the cost of rebuilding and the combined Road Home and insurance proceeds of 125,000 grant recipients is between $1.6 billion and $2.3 billion. 
 
The problem was exemplified at Thursday's hearing by the story of Lillian Baker, an octogenarian whose home in Pontchartrain Park was destroyed. The Road Home said her estimated damage was $209,000, but her prestorm value was only $84,000, and based on that figure, her final grant was $54,000. 
 
"The Road Home program was supposed to help us get back into our home, but it only created more stress at a time when stress wasn't needed," Baker wrote in testimony read by her daughter, Shari Baker. 
For the families who had received Additional Compensation Grants alone, the gap remained $600 million, Rigamer found. 
 
Rainwater's plan is to use $600 million of leftover Road Home money to pay additional grants. Doing so will require an action plan approved by the LRA board and approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 
 
The $600 million became available when the LRA decided to use money from another source to finance up to $7,500 to Road Home applicants for storm shutters, roof tie-downs and other mitigation measures. That program still hasn't begun and won't be ready until at least October, Rainwater said. 
 
The Times-Picayune reported more than a year ago that many recipients got far less than what they needed because the Road Home grant formula is based on prestorm values rather than rebuilding costs. 
Waters' alternative, in addition to requiring changes to the federal Stafford Act and other legislation, would likely disrupt the LRA's current plans for nearly all the remaining $1.5 billion in the Road Home budget. 
 
In addition to the $600 million he wants to distribute to cover rebuilding costs, Rainwater said Thursday that he expects $500 million to go to a few thousand applicants who are still waiting for grants, another $85 million to go to applicants who sold their home in the first two years after the storm, and $245 million toward demolishing thousands of blighted homes that applicants sold to the Road Home. 
 
The covenant extension, already implemented, offers grant recipients up to two more years to rebuild their homes. The original grants set a three-year limit. 
 
"We're coming up on three years of some of the (first) covenants that were signed," Rainwater said. "But there are still significant gaps in funding out there. That's why we're looking at individual covenant waivers on a case-by-case basis, and raising the cap on the ACG -- to get real money into real people's hands." 
Rainwater acknowledged that enforcing the three-year time limit to rebuild is difficult for the state. But he denied that offering people a chance to ask for up to two yearlong extensions was a backdoor way of figuring out who is not rebuilding. 
 
"I have no desire to enforce a covenant on someone who is really trying," he said. "But we all know that some people took the money and moved away. We want to help people work through issues, but in some cases we need to enforce the covenants." 
. . . . . . . 
David Hammer can be reached at dhammer at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3322. 
 
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/53853607.html
State of Louisiana to propose help for homeowners

By BECKY BOHRER 
Associated Press writer 
Published: Aug 20, 2009 - UPDATED: 5:40 p.m.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — With thousands of hurricane-damaged homes still not rebuilt, Louisiana officials are seeking to tap potentially hundreds of millions in unused federal recovery dollars to help cash-strapped homeowners finish the work.
 
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., suggested one way during a congressional subcommittee hearing at Dillard University in New Orleans on Thursday: Flat subsidies — "substantial enough to make a difference" — to help homeowners complete their rebuilding.
 
Congress approved a special $3 billion allocation for the state's flagship Road Home rebuilding program amid fears Road Home would go broke, leaving out some homeowners.
 
With hundreds of millions of that now expected to be left over, state and federal officials, aware of the housing and other recovery challenges remaining nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina, are looking at ways to keep the money on the Gulf Coast and not headed back to the U.S. Treasury.
 
Louisiana hurricane recovery chief Paul Rainwater said the state would propose using possibly $600 million from the $3 billion authorized for Road Home to help low- to moderate-income homeowners who have expended their grant funding and private insurance dollars but still can't cover the total cost of rebuilding.
 
That would need federal approval — though Rainwater expected getting it would be much easier than the sweeping changes he said would be needed to realize Waters' suggestion. He said a plan should be submitted by the state for review soon.
 
The current ceiling for Road Home aid is $150,000. Those with greater damage have had to rely on private insurance or their own money to finish the work.
State officials believe $600 million could let as many as 20,000 lower- and middle-income homeowners complete repairs.
 
"It's the right thing to do," Rainwater said after testifying before the hearing focused on Road Home. "It's fast."
 
Road Home, which Rainwater has called "the largest single home rebuilding program in American history," was created after the hurricanes to buy out homeowners who didn't want to return or help them rebuild. As of Monday, it reported completing the payout of nearly $8 billion in grants to more than 124,500 applicants.
 
Hurricane Katrina struck southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi coast on Aug. 29, 2005; the storm and levee breaches left 80 percent of New Orleans under water and many neighborhoods in ruins. Hurricane Rita followed about a month later, devastating a wide swath of the western Louisiana coast and east Texas, and adding more damage in the New Orleans area.
 
Road Home, funded with federal dollars but overseen by the state, has been dogged by resident complaints. The program, set up under the administration of former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, has undergone a series of modifications aimed at improving communication, service to residents and the process of appealing grant awards that were disputed by applicants. A new contractor is now managing it, but some residents and advocacy groups say problems persist.
 
Davida Finger, a staff attorney with the Loyola University law clinic, took issue with characterizing any remaining funds as surplus. She said any such money should not be diverted for any other purposes but used for Road Home, doing what the state is proposing — though she said she'd like to see more details on the specifics — and on efforts including correcting "program mistakes."
 
"Some people have been helped, and many other people have suffered so because of the inconsistent, unfair and tortuous way this program was handled," New Orleans resident Melanie Ehrlich, whose Citizen's Road Home Action Team has been a vocal advocate for homeowners, said in a phone interview.
 
Waters, who chairs the housing and community opportunity subcommittee, said she shared concerns with the process and whether there have been any disparities in grant amounts that have adversely affected lower-income and minority homeowners. She drew applause when she said there seemed to be a mentality within the program to not give people the full amount allowed.
"Hurricanes don't discriminate," said U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who said his district includes residents still displaced from Louisiana by Katrina. Green said officials must do everything possible to get people back into their homes.
"This is serious business for us," he said.
 
Road Home has received more than $10 billion, plus the $3 billion special allocation.
Rainwater said he spoke with Gov. Bobby Jindal and members of the Louisiana Recovery Authority about his proposal to use unspent funds and "we think we can stand this up."
The state also plans to extend the deadline to complete work on homes by up to two years for early grant recipients who haven't finished construction.
 
 
On Public Access TV (COX 10)The Latest Filming of a CHAT Meeting About Our Complaint to the HUD Office of the Inspector General About the Road Home Program 
  Wed., June 10, Noon-1:30 PM; Fri., June 12, Noon-1;30 PM; Sun., June 14, 10:00-11:30; Mon., June 15, 8:00-10:00; Thurs., June 18, 8:00-10:30; Sat., June 20, 11:00-1:00;  Mon., June 22, 12 - 2 PM; Fri., June 26, 8-10 AM; Wed., July 1, 3 PM; Thurs. July2, 2:30 PM; Fri., July 3, 3 PM; Sun., July 5, 9 AM; Mon., July 6, noon; Tues., July 7, 1:30 PM; Wed., July 8, noon; Mon., July 13, 4 PM; Wed., July 15, 3 PM; Thurs., July 16, 3:30 PM; Mon., July 20, 3 PM; Mon., July 27, 3:30 PM;  Wed., Aug. 5, 3 PM; Fri., Aug.7, 8 AM and 2:30 PM; Mon., Aug. 10, 3 PM; Wed., Aug. 12, 3 PM; Fri., Aug. 14, 12:30 PM;  Tues., Aug. 19, 4:30 PM; Fri., Aug. 22, 2 PM; Sat., Aug. 23, 10:30 AM; Wed.,  Aug. 26, 2 PM; Fri., Aug. 28, 2 PM; Thurs., Sept. 9, 2 PM; Sun., Sept. 6, 9 AM
 
 
Best wishes, 
Melanie Ehrlich 
Founder, Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT) 
Member, LRA Housing Task Force 
 
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