[FoCHAT] CHATNews:And That Is Why; $7,500 grants; Addl. Comp. Grants

[Melanie Ehrlich]

Nov. 20, 2009
 
Dear CHAT Members,
 

1. Hurricane Katrina lawsuit won  (but might be overturned upon appeals so don’t hold your breath).
 
 The facts behind this lawsuit and behind the purposely hid defects in levee walls responsible for much of the flooding after Hurricane Katrina, the negligence of federal government that led to horrible and unnecessary loss of life during the flood, and the unfair treatment after the flood waters receded is why so many Road Home (RH) applicants are so angry at their treatment by this "compensation," not hand-out, program.
 
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/11/18/louisiana.katrina.lawsuit/ 
 
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/us/20orleans.html?_r=1
In "New Orleans, Elation Over Katrina Liability Ruling 
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON 
Published: November 19, 2009 
NEW ORLEANS — Since the first days after Hurricane Katrina, when the streets were still under water, many residents of New Orleans and its surroundings have maintained that the flood that wrecked their lives was the government’s fault, and that the government should pay for it.
 A judge ruled that negligent maintenance of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet led to flooding in New Orleans. 

On Wednesday night came news that many had hoped for but few had believed would ever actually happen: a federal judge agreed.
Charles S. Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said that the government was still reviewing the decision. 
“We have made no decision as to what the government’s next step will be in this matter,” he said in a statement.
But given the potential of liability, legal experts are expecting the government to appeal. 
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, where the case would go, has a record of hostility to plaintiffs in environmental cases, said Oliver Houck, a law professor at Tulane University. ...

Wednesday’s decision was about a different corps project, the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a navigation channel known as MR-GO (pronounced Mister Go). In the 156-page decision, the judge wrote nearly as much about complicated immunity issues as he did in determining that the corps’s negligent maintenance of the channel actually caused the flooding in two areas, including the Lower Ninth Ward...." [St. Bernard Parish was included.] 
 
For so many Road Home Program (RH) applicants:
 
      who never had an independent appeal to correct RH mistakes,
 
      or who have extremely long grant processing,
 
     grants squeezed by applicant-unfriendly changes in rules, 
 
     or were left in limbo for so very long by the RH,
 
 
the distress caused by RH shortchanging, extreme nontransparency, and inaccessibility for answers to simple questions,

     on top of the devastating losses from hurricane-floods,
 
     were piled on top of the anger that their losses were the government's fault,

     and they were owed this money by the government,

    and that this RH was really guilt money for Army Corp of Engineer mistakes

Government officials and contractors should not have dangled money in front of honest citizens with false promises and misleading statements about basic grants, HMGP elevation grants (in contradiction to statements below about encouraging applicants to build safer and stronger), and additional compensation grants.

Will government officials ever "get it" and admit what hurricane-flood victims are due? 



2. $7500 Grants for Raising Air Conditioning, Shutters, And Other Individual Mitigation Measures (IMM Grants)
 
Road Home grants available up to $7,500 for storm shutters, roof tie-downs, other mitigation measures
By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune 
November 16, 2009, 11:29AM
The LRA says it is sending out letters this week to all families who elected to collect Road Home grants to rebuild their homes. That's about 115,000 homeowners across south Louisiana.
The letters will offer them the chance to opt-in to the Individual Mitigation Measures reimbursement program, which will pay up to $7,500 for safety measures such as storm shutters, roof tie-downs, elevated air conditioning and heating units, strengthened doors and anchored fuel tanks.
Each Road Home applicant getting a letter will have until March 10, 2010, to decide whether to participate in the program. They will also have a chance to sign up for another mitigation program that pays up to $100,000 to reimburse for the costs of raising their homes.
Interested applicants are urged to wait to start any of the work they want to be reimbursed for until after a mitigation analyst can assess their needs. [Why more waste of money and time on mitigation analysts; as we have seen in the HMGP elevation grant program?] The LRA says it will consider making payments when about half of the reimbursable work is done, to alleviate the financial stress for homeowners of having to front the money.
The state is in the process of hiring a company to do two-party checks and coordinate payment among the state, homeowners and their contractors, LRA spokeswoman Christina Stephens said.
But if an applicant has already done the work, he or she must present receipts for reimbursement, "and we'll be trying to work with them to help them get funds," Stephens said.
The program will not be financed by the Road Home, but rather by a FEMA program called the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program -- the same one that is offering up to $100,000 for elevation costs. Therefore, any questions about the small-scale mitigation program should be directed to the mitigation hotline at 877.824.8312.
Thousands of Road Home applicants have been waiting for years for the small-scale mitigation program to begin. It was a key part of the state's initial promotion of the Road Home program in the summer of 2006. Posters and advertisements urged everyone to apply, even those who felt fully covered by private insurance, because the state promised to also provide up to $7,500 to help them build stronger, safer homes.
But budgetary problems kept the program on the sidelines. As recently as this spring, the state provided a telephone hotline for those who wanted to participate in the program, but it wasn't staffed. It turned out the state wasn't ready to make payments yet, further frustrating homeowners.
Instead, the LRA was able to free up the $300 million it would need to run the program by drawing mostly from the fund controlled by FEMA rather than from the Road Home budget. With $300 million, the state would be able pay about 40,000 homeowners the full $7,500, although not all will spend that much on qualified mitigation measures.

3. Raising Cap on the Additional Compensation Grants (ACG)
 
For applicants who got ACG money but whose grant was decreased because of a $50,000 maximum, you should have gotten a letter already from RH about additional money.
 
If you have questions about ACG grants or IMM grants, please contact 
 

thomas.brennan at la.gov 
 carol.newton at la.gov  
 
dotty.tapscott at la.gov
 
or
 
christina.stephens at la.gov
 
Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving rising above it all,
Melanie Ehrlich
Founder, Citizens' Road Home Action Team (CHAT)
Member, LRA Housing Task Force
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