[FoCHAT] CHAT News: More on request for diversion of Road Home funds

Tue Jan 13 00:17:54 CST 2009

Dear Concerned Citizen, 
1. Please send an email about unjustified push to divert Road Home grant money 
Ø Tell Senator Landrieu laverne_saulny at landrieu.senate.gov 
Ø  Tell members of the State Legislature who have shown much concern in the past about the Road Home Program 
Sens. Murray,  Gray, and Morrell: murraye at legis.state.la.us; grayc at legis.state.la.us,  jeanpaulmorrell at hotmail.com 
They need to speak up now. 
Ø  Tell the Chairman of the Legislative Audit Advisory Council, Rep. Ellington 
ellingtn at legis.state.la.us 

Ø  Please cc:    chatlra at yahoo.com 

Here is the string of emails: 
laverne_saulny at landrieu.senate.gov; murraye at legis.state.la.us; grayc at legis.state.la.us,  jeanpaulmorrell at hotmail.com; ellingtn at legis.state.la.us 
You could use this wording or your own. 

Dear Legislators, 
Please oppose diverting Road Home funds to other purposes than helping applicants and fixing mistakes with fair appeals opened up to those shut out of appeals. 
The LRA and apparently Gov. Jindal want supposed excess Road Home funds to help finance a new hospital to replace Charity hospital and thereby destroy a Mid-City neighborhood that is actively being rebuilt by homeowners. There is no excess of Road Home funds. Many applicants have been shortchanged in their Road Home grant. They should come first.   
Yours truly, 

Ø  More on Charity Hospital: “Media allowed inside shuttered Charity” http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl010709mlcharity.3d3f007.ht 
January 7, 200, Dennis Woltering / Eyewitness News 
Ø  A physician told me that part of Charity was cleaned up and ready for use almost  immediately after the storm but that it was mothballed. Was this part of a plan to push for a new hospital instead of fixing a pre-existing one right in downtown in a strategic location? 
See chatushome.com for more information about this issue. 
Ø  Note the mostly ignored Road Home Statement of Principles 
This was derived from CHAT’s bill of RH rights 
See http://www.chatushome.com:2500/chatus/published/Road+Home+Bill+of+Rights 
RH Statement of Principles (unanimously approved by the LRA Board in the spring of 2007) 
http://road2la.org/about-us/principles.htm 
17. The state should strive to provide sufficient loans at affordable rates to enable applicants to rebuild or repair.
Middle to low income families with homes of moderate value, in particular, are less likely than other income groups to get enough Road Home compensation grants to rebuild. Congress should waive the SBA duplication of benefit requirements so that homeowners will be able to retain their low-cost SBA loans for their additional rebuilding needs.  Further, the state should strive to create more affordable or forgivable loans for those with rebuilding costs that exceed their pre-storm values. 

Instead of this help to applicants for whom the Road Home funds were specifically intended, we have seen a systematic squeezing of grants (decreasing amounts to applicants and telling them just at grant closing; more and more restrictive rules; many applicants left in limbo) especially in late 2007 and in 2008. 
Was this meant to save money for the increase in ICF’s contract amount and for requesting permission from Congress for a diversion of these funds to help rebuild a new hospital instead of renovating Charity Hospital with available FEMA funds? 

2. ICF Emergency Management Services, LLC (ICF) & Quadel Consulting Corp. (an ICF Subcontractor) could not buy the silence of all of its employees 
At the Dec. 10 CHAT meeting being televised by Cox 10, you can hear and see one Road Home employee whose silence about RH problems could not be bought with a severance agreement 
The agreement forbids even speaking about it 
 Nonetheless, we have it at our website 
Ø  The problems with ICF upper management intimidating employees who made constructive suggestions and the lack of consulting staff who dealt with applicants about the effectiveness of new or ongoing ICF protocols have been confirmed by additional former ICF staff 
·         Many ICF staff members told us they were just as frustrated with the Road Home as the applicants 
Ø  We thank George Blow and COX10 for their dedication to getting the facts about Road Home to applicants! 
Ø  The 2-hour CHAT meeting on Dec. 10, 2008 about Road Home Contradictions has been/will be shown on: 
Tues., Dec. 16, 4 PM; Wed., Dec. 17, noon; Thurs., Dec. 18, 8 AM; Tues., Dec. 23, noon; Thurs., Dec. 25, noon; Fri., Dec. 26, 8 AM; Sat., Dec. 27, 4:30 PM; Sun., Dec. 28, 1 PM; Mon., Dec. 29, noon; Wed., Dec. 31, 2 PM; Thurs., Jan. 1, 1 PM; Fri., Jan. 2, 8 AM & 6 PM; Sat., Jan. 3, 3 PM; Mon., Jan. 5, 1:30 PM; Tues., Jan. 6, 3 PM; Wed., Jan. 7, noon; Thurs, Jan. 8, 4 PM; Fri., Jan. 9, 1:30 PM; Sat., Jan., 10, 3 PM; Mon., Jan. 12, 4 PM; Tues., Jan. 13, noon; Wed., Jan. 14, 2 PM; Thurs., Jan. 15, 2 PM; Fri., Jan. 16, noon; Sat., Jan. 17, 3 PM. 

3. You might want to contact your legislator if you need help with Road Home shortchanging and can’t get help from RH 
(and cc:   chatlra at yahoo.com) 
A CHAT member received the following email. 
From: "Abramson, Rep. (District Office)" <abramson at legis.state.la.us> 
To: @yahoo.com> 
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 5:39:46 PM 
Subject: RE: LRA funds to be used for hospital 

Ms. XX: 
Thank you for your email.  Please let any applicant who has been treated unfairly or needs additional assistance know that they should contact their state representative or senator. 
We will do whatever we can to help. 
Thanks, Neil 

Neil Abramson 
State Representative, District 98 
365 Canal Street, Suite 2740 
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130 
Ph  (504)275-8051 
Fax (504)568-3342 
________________________________________ 
From: @yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 4:47 PM 
To: laverne_saulny at landrieu.senate.gov; Abramson, Rep. (District Office); Ellington, Rep. (District Office); Gautreaux, Sen. Nick (District Office); Kleckley, Rep. (District Office); Ligi, Rep. (District Office); Richmond, Rep. (District Office); Gray, Sen. (District Office) 
Cc: chatlra at yahoo.com 
Subject: LRA funds to be used for hospital 
Dear Senators and members of the State Legislative Committee, 
I recently read that the governor's office is trying to obtain permission from congress to have the funds that were meant for the Road Home Program reallocated for rebuilding the public hospital system.  While this hospital is a very important step towards rebuilding the greater New Orleans area, I do not believe that this is the best use of these funds.  A better use for the funds allocated for the Road Home Program would be to use them to compensate the Road Home Program applicants who are still waiting for grant money to rebuild their lives.  There are many applicants who have been in “resolution” or “appeal” for years who could really use this money to get back on their feet.  Many applicants have had files closed unfairly and without a written reason or notification.  There are fundamental problems with the program.  Thousands (not an exaggeration) of applicants are being denied fair compensation. 
I urge you to make it a priority to make sure that every applicant who rightfully deserves the compensation grant for damage suffered during the 2005 storms and subsequent floods gets their fair grant.  To do otherwise would not only deny hard working Louisianians a chance to rebuild, but would also be another black eye for the State of Louisiana.  The main reason cited by Senator Ted Stevens and Donald Powell in the May 2007 U.S. Senate Hearing to NOT grant Louisiana more federal funding was that they were afraid that the state would use the money for some other purpose.  By diverting funding from the program before all applicants have received grant money you are only proving them right. 
Yours truly, 
___________________________________________________________ 
We at CHAT hope that the New Year will be good for you! 
Melanie Ehrlich 
http://chatushome.com 

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