[FoCHAT] CHATNews: Another Attempt To Divert RH Money; Extension Convenant

[Melanie Ehrlich]

 Nov. 15, 2009
Dear CHAT Members,
1. Third attempt to divert money from Road Home Program (RH) applicants who have been shortchanged
2.  How to ask for an extension of the rebuilding covenant for RH applicants
3.  Contaminated drywall
4. Upcoming Housing Task Force Meeting, Dec. 7, 1 PM, UNO
5. See CHAT’s blog for recent newsletters and applicant comments; you are welcome to comment there     http://www.chatushome.com/blog/?p=64
 
1. Below is a description of the third government proposal to take RH applicants money away from them instead of using it for fair appeals to fix shortchanging mistakes by the RH.
A. Clearing Blight
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1258094436136850.xml&coll=1
Proposal uses federal dollars to clear blight
It would tap unused recovery money 
Friday, November 13, 2009 
By Robert Travis Scott 
Staff writer 
BATON ROUGE -- House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Aligers, launched an initiative Thursday to steer up to $1 billion to New Orleans to clear blighted homes and repair roads by shifting federal rebuilding money out of underused hurricane recovery programs. 
Tucker offered the proposal to the Louisiana Recovery Authority, whose executive director agreed to examine the issue and bring it back to the authority next month. 
Tucker said New Orleans' crime, blight, crumbling infrastructure and a soaring cost of living are combining to drive people out of the city. 
"I'm very gravely concerned," Tucker said. "I'm very fearful that we'll end up being like Detroit." 
He proposed that the LRA identify programs that are not likely to use all their allocated money from the Community Development Block Grants awarded to Louisiana after the 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 
Tucker said about 60,000 parcels in the city that had power before Katrina are not using electricity, an indication of the magnitude of the blight. About $500 million could be used to tear down most of those properties, he said. 
Another $500 million could be steered toward New Orleans infrastructure, including roads and water and sewer service, he said. 
LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater said he wants his staff to meet with New Orleans recovery officials to review the blight situation and estimate the costs while also looking at which LRA programs are not fully using their dedicated money. 
No one is certain how much federal recovery money would be available. 
The Road Home program to rebuild houses is winding down, but some other programs to revitalize communities with new apartments and commercial developments are struggling to reach their intended goals. 
Even if the LRA approved Tucker's idea, some or all of his initiative might need the approval of federal authorities. 
Also Thursday, the Louisiana Recovery Authority agreed to allocate $5 million to provide assistance to Road Home applicants with contaminated drywall but still is awaiting federal guidance on how to run the program and determine who would be eligible. 
The resolution adopted by the authority board sets aside the money from the block grants awarded to Louisiana by the federal government for hurricane recovery. 
. . . . . . . 
Robert Travis Scott can be reached at rscott at timespicayune.com or 225.342.4197
 
The other two attempted uses are cited below.
 
B. Rebuilding Charity Hospital
v    Excerpts of Draft Minutes, LRA Board Meeting Nov. 18, 2008 
Monthly Budget Presentation 
Mr. Paul Rainwater said we had asked HUD for an Action Plan Amendment to eliminate the $150,000 cap on the Road Home program. We are not sure how much will be spent on elevations, but $650 million has been drawn down in individual mitigation funds. It is not known how much LLT will spend on demolitions and slab removals, but it could range between $300 and $450 million. Adjustments are being made to the Small Rental program, but there could be between $300 and $500 million in unallocated funds. We do not want to return these funds to the Treasury because we want homeowners to have this funding. Mr. Sean Reilly asked if these are just Road Home figures. Mr. Rainwater explained that the figures encompass all recovery programs. If we are allowed some flexibility by Congress, then we may be able to help Charity Hospital , the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board and others in need. 
Mr. Sean Reilly offered a motion to approve a resolution to petition Congress for reallocation of the appropriations to cover other obligations. The motion was seconded by Ms. Pat LeBlanc 
Final Approval of the Resolution to Petition Congress for Reallocation of the Appropriations to Cover Other Obligations. 
RESOLVED, that the Board hereby accepts and approves the resolution to petition Congress for reallocation of the appropriations to cover other obligations. 
Voting: Rep. Karen Carter-Peterson, Dupre, Jas Gill, Lasseigne, Pat LeBlanc, Walter Leger Jr., Roy O. Martin III, Sen. Edward Murray , Sean Reilly, 
and John E. Smith. 
 
o    “State asks feds to OK funds for N.O. hospital”: http://docs.newsbank.com/s/InfoWeb/aggdocs/NewsBank/124924606E649E10/0EEA30604397A028
o     
  The Advocate, (Baton Rouge, LA) - Wednesday, November 19, 2008, ALLEN M. JOHNSON JR.
o   “Media allowed inside shuttered Charity”: http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl010709mlcharity.3d3f007.html
                        January 7, 200, Dennis Woltering / Eyewitness News 
 
o    And spending it on a new hospital when the renovation of Charity hospital is feasible, expeditious, and cost-effective:    http://www.fhl.org/FHL/News/PresvAlerts/CharityHospital/FHL-RMJMResponse12-22-08.pdf
Homeowners victims of LRA double standard
Posted by Letters to the Editor September 03, 2009 3:55PM
Re: "Oct. 30 deadline on arbitration: New federal rules may affect Charity dispute, " Page A2, Sept. 1. There is a double standard in the thinking of the Louisiana Recovery Authority -- one standard for homeowner disaster victims and another for state, organizational, and commercial interests in a major building project.
In the article about LRA's dispute over hurricane-flood damage to the 20-story Charity Hospital, the claim is that the structure, which sustained flood water in the basement and about 3 feet of water on the first floor, is more than 50 percent damaged. In that case, funding from FEMA for replacement, not just repair, is justified.
However, in LRA's oversight and rule-setting for the Road Home Program, homeowners in two-story or camel-back homes are routinely told that they do not have more than 50 percent damage even if flood waters reached 8 to 12 feet in their homes.
Equally discordant is LRA's assertion that its appeal of FEMA's damage assessment should be considered by an independent panel unaffiliated with FEMA.
Road Home applicants' disputes or appeals are decided by the contractor for the program or one of its subcontractors.
Secondary and final appeals are decided by the state review panel, including members of LRA and other state agencies with Road Home oversight.
So, LRA invokes independent appeals in its quest for FEMA money for replacing storm-damaged Charity Hospital. But Road Home applicants cannot get an independent appeal in their attempt to rebuild their storm-devastated homes.
Melanie Ehrlich
Founder
Citizens' Road Home Action Team
New Orleans
http://blog.nola.com/letterstotheeditor/2009/09/homeowners_victims_of_lra_doub.html#more
 
C. Mobile Health Clinics
Health clinics face uncertain future
By Cathy Hughes 
September 04, 2009, 9:40PM
 
Tulane Community Health van was parked near Martin Luther King Boulevard on Friday. 'This should not be considered stopgap or just recovery,' said Dr. Karen DeSalvo, who directs Tulane University's community clinic operations. 
The burgeoning system of primary-care clinics now operating across southeast Louisiana is viewed by many as a success story of Hurricane Katrina recovery, with expanded health care access for people who had long depended almost entirely on hospitals for medical attention.
But health care leaders say the network, which comprises more than two dozen public entities and private not-for-profits operating 91 facilities, is threatened unless a long-term financing stream is found after a key federal grant runs out next September.
State and local players are targeting Community Development Block Grants left over from congressional appropriations that followed the 2005 storm season. Yet tapping that pool involves several bureaucratic hurdles, leaving some clinic leaders unwilling to call it a sure thing.
Whatever the financial answer, state Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said the network is a model for how to shift from hospital-based care for diseases and chronic conditions to managing a person's overall health and quality of life.
"We can't afford to lose them, " Levine said. "This is a big deal."
Dr. Karen DeSalvo, who directs Tulane University's community clinic operations, said, "We have reached the point where this should not be considered stopgap or just recovery."
Williams and DeSalvo estimate that the clinics need $30 million annually to continue operating at their current capacity of 160,000 patients each year, about half of whom have no insurance.
 
Community clinics dotted the region's landscape before Katrina, but they have blossomed since the storm, particularly as the state shuttered Charity Hospital, the primary destination for health care for the uninsured.
Federal grant
In July 2007, the federal government granted the region $100 million to spread over three years to aid the development of the clinics. The state selected the Louisiana Public Health Institute to administer the program.
The institute identified the 25 entities -- from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and Tulane University to Daughters of Charity and Common Ground -- as recipients of the Primary Care Access and Stabilization Grant.
The 91 clinics are spread among Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes. The sites vary in their hours, levels of services and the payment classifications of their patient base.
The system includes adult and pediatric primary care, obstetrics, dental care, mental health services and school clinics. Half of the system's patients are uninsured and about a quarter are on Medicaid, almost all of those being minors. The rest have Medicare or carry private insurance.
Williams said the federal grant is the key piece that allows the clinics to serve the uninsured, a population estimated at 120,000 in the four parishes. Without that financing stream, the Public Health Institute estimates the system's total patient capacity would drop 30 percent to 40 percent.
Three dozen of the clinic cites have attained national certification as "medical homes, " a distinction that assesses a provider's ability to provide each patient with an ongoing relationship with a personal physician.
Participating clinics are paid on a per-patient basis, with the clinic's overall payer mix and level of risk among the patients weighting the payments. The American health insurance system is dominated by payment-per-service schemes.
An integrated system
Though the federal grant does not cover electronic health records, the system has worked to integrate its records and link with the Interim LSU Public Hospital should patients need to be referred for hospital and specialty care.
The result, DeSalvo said, is an integrated system that allows physicians to manage the overall health of a patient.
DeSalvo said she "recognizes this is not Nirvana, " because it does lure some families away from private practices. The most likely examples, she said, are families where children are covered by the state's LaCHIP program, but the parents are uninsured. That costs some private practices potential Medicaid payments for treating the children.
"But we need to reach the parents, too, " DeSalvo said.
Williams said the institute estimates that clinics are providing primary care for uninsured patients for less than $600 annually, a figure that is much cheaper than emergency room care. "The providers have achieved something that is worth sustaining in perpetuity, " he said. Williams and DeSalvo are scheduled to meet next week with Louisiana Recovery Authority Director Paul Rainwater, whose agency distributes the post-recovery block grant money.
Congressional OK needed
Rainwater said in a recent interview that LRA is in the process of a full accounting of the estimated $3 billion that has yet to be spent from three separate congressional appropriations, about half of that earmarked specifically for the Road Home residential rebuilding program. Any changes affecting money from the first two appropriations must be approved by LRA, a legislative oversight panel and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It would take congressional action to redirect any money from the Road Home-specific appropriations.
DeSalvo said she wants to ask LRA for as much as $150 million, which she said would sustain current operations through 2015.
Williams and DeSalvo said the issue must be considered independent of a possible health insurance overhaul. Whatever Congress does, they said, likely won't be in place for several years, even if it does end up expanding insurance coverage to the uninsured population the clinics reach now.
At DHH, Levine did not cite a specific dollar amount, but said he supports the recovery block grant money as the best financing route. Levine's budget is unlikely to be a source, given the impending drop in the state's Medicaid financing .
Levine said he has had discussions with LRA board members who were enthusiastic about assisting the clinics.
. . . . . . .
Bill Barrow can be reached at bbarrow at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3452
http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2009/09/health_clinics_face_uncertain.html
 
Notable and related is the Letter to the Editor below.
These are other voices with similar messages about LRA resisting using left-over money for the items that should be highest priority.
However, I add that many financially strained middle-income applicants have been sorely mistreated by RH so that recovery of their homes is questionable or already impossible.
In addition, many lower, middle, and upper-income  applicants have lost so much time, energy, and emotional stability by being treated so shabbily with erroneous determinations, inconsistent calculations and rules, and being left in limbo.
Road Home still avoids fixing appeals process: A letter to the editor
By Letters to the Editor 
November 08, 2009, 1:56AM
Re: "State lifts cap on Road Home: Money may plug shortfall for 19,000," Page 1, Nov. 4.
After more than three years of waiting for the Road Home program to adequately compensate homeowners, we are dubious of Jindal administration claims that this most recent change to the Additional Compensation Grant will make up for the broken promises of the past. 
The formula the Road Home uses to calculate grants has been flawed from the start, specifically the racially discriminatory impact of using home values that are unrelated to the real cost of rebuilding. This supposed fix to ACG including the welcome distribution of additional funds will not remedy those effects for countless homeowners.
The federal Community Development Block Grant program that funds the Road Home not only requires that funds be used to benefit low and moderate-income families, but that they not discriminate and affirmatively further fair housing as well. LRA's decision to ignore the racially discriminatory impact of its policies, its failure to create a functional case management system, and its reluctance to fix the appeals process remain as serious barriers to recovery. 
he Road Home has continually changed policies and applied varying standards to determine ACG eligibility, so its promise that "the state already knows who is eligible" for additional funds falls flat. Without reopening fair appeals of not only the Additional Compensation Grant, but damage estimates, household income and other figures used in grant calculation, the Road Home will continue to impede equitable rebuilding.
Davida Finger
Loyola Law Clinic
Seth Weingart
Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
New Orleans 
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2009/11/road_home_still_avoids_fixing.html 
 
 
2. Possible Extension of Covenant for Applicants Upon Request
This policy change which will help some applicants who need and deserve help with the deadline  is NOT posted anywhere on the Road Home website  road2la.org
Note to see the covenants, look at your closing documents for your Road Home grant and for your elevation grant. The covenant for elevation grants resets the covenant date to 3 years from then.
Questions?





 Contact christina.stephens at la.gov, thomas.brennan at la.gov, 


carol.newton at la.gov,  or 


dotty.tapscott at la.gov
 
http://lra.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID=576&ssid=0

August 20, 2009
Contact: Christina Stephens, christina.stephens at la.gov 
Road Home Recipients Can Request More Time to Rebuild Their Homes
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Homeowners who accepted Road Home grants to rebuild their homes after hurricanes Katrina and Rita can request an extension of the three-year deadline to rebuild their homes, the state of Louisiana announced Thursday.
As part of the covenant Road Home grant recipients agree to, their homes must be rebuilt within three years of receiving the grant funds. Under the new policy, homeowners can request a one-year extension of this covenant if they have a valid reason for not being able to complete their homes during the original three-year period. The state's Office of Community Development may grant homeowners no more than two such extensions.
"When homeowners accept their grants, they signed a covenant that said they would rebuild within three years. The first group of homeowners affected by this requirement will meet their deadlines this fall," said Paul Rainwater, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.
"Based on data analysis on the Road Home and the very difficult financial climate we find ourselves in, the state of Louisiana will offer applicants an extension of this timeline if they can show good cause as to why they cannot complete their construction, including experiencing an unexpected financial hardship, coping with health issues, falling prey to an unscrupulous contractor or exhausting their Road Home funds because the cost of construction was too high."
"While we hope Road Home grantees rebuild within three years of receiving their grant awards, we are convinced that some simply will not make this deadline, and we do not want to penalize those who, for reasons out of their control, need more time to complete their homes," Rainwater said.
To request an extension, the homeowner must be able to provide a current building permit to demonstrate that he or she intends to rebuild or repair the home. Homeowners who may need such an extension should call the state Office of Community Development at 225.219.9600. Extensions begin at the end of the three-year rebuilding period.
An extension of the three-year timeline to rebuild does not cancel other aspects of the Road Home covenant, including requirements that the homeowner must keep the property properly insured. If the homeowner received Road Home elevation funds, the covenant extension does not automatically extend the terms of the Elevation Covenant Rider, unless specifically requested by the homeowner.
Acceptable reasons for requesting an extension of the covenants include:


Unexpected financial hardship for a homeowner; 
Homeowner experiences an emergency or health issue; 
Unforeseen and uncontrollable delays in construction after the homeowner makes a good-faith effort to secure a contractor or builder; 
Homeowner falls victim to an unscrupulous contractor that unlawfully takes Road Home proceeds; 
Homeowner exhausts Road Home proceeds prior to bringing the home to a livable standard; 
Homeowner passes away during the covenant period and the heirs are unable to complete repairs in the three-year period; 
Homeowner receives military orders or a job assignment requiring that he or she relocate; 
Homeowner sells the property and assigns the right to the Road Home grant, and the new seller is unable to complete the work in the original covenant period; 
Homeowner files for divorce after receiving Road Home grant funds and one spouse retains a portion of the funds without intending to fulfill the Road Home covenants; 
Homeowner completes work and reoccupies the home during the three-year covenant period, but the home is damaged by a subsequent natural disaster; 
Home was repaired during the covenant period, but contaminated drywall was installed and the homeowner must remove this drywall before the home is livable. 
 
3.  Contaminated Drywall
LRA Board Approves Contaminated Drywall Aid for Road Home Applications
HUD approval, federal testing protocols last remaining hurdles for aid
BATON ROUGE, La. - Following unanimous support from the Louisiana Recovery Authority Board of Directors at today's meeting, the state of Louisiana is forwarding its plan for devoting $5 million to assisting Road Home applicants now affected by contaminated drywall to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for final approval.
Under the plan, once the federal government has released its testing and remediation protocol for dealing with these drywall problems, Louisiana will use $5 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds allocated after hurricanes Katrina and Rita to aid homeowners in the Road Home program who now have contaminated drywall problems.
Click here to read the contaminated drywall plan
 
4. Upcoming LRA Housing Task Force Meeting
The meeting of the Louisiana Recovery Authority Housing Taskforce has been re-scheduled for: 
Monday, December 7, 2009
1:00 p.m.  University of New Orleans, Research and Technology Park, 
Lindy C. Boggs International Conference Center, 2045 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans, LA 
 
I will send the agenda when I get it.
  
5. See CHAT’s blog for recent newsletters and applicant comments; you are welcome to comment there     http://www.chatushome.com/blog/?p=64
You can see CHAT newsletters sent within the last few months and can comment on newsletters or other RH issues there.
 
Best wishes,
Melanie Ehrlich
Founder, Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT)  http://chatushome.com
Member, LRA Housing Task Force