[FoCHAT] NO City Council's Resolution About the RH Bill of Rights

[Melanie Ehrlich]

  FoCHAT,
   
  This Road Home Bill of Rights can set a benchmark for what we need to expect from the RHP. At the end of the New Orleans' City Council Version is CHAT's very similar version but with examples of problems that the RHP needs to address via this Bill of Rights. 
   
  February 22, 2007
   
  Melanie Ehrlich
  Citizen’s Road Home Action Team
  1450 Crescent Drive
  New Orleans, LA 70122
   
  Dear Melanie,
   
  Councilmember Fielkow has asked me to take a moment to contact you and inform you that he and Councilmember Oliver Thomas introduced a slightly revised Road Home Bill of Rights at last Thursday’s City Council meeting which was passed unanimously by the full council. Please find attached, a copy of the resolution for your review and distribution. We hope that this effort will be helpful in gaining additional support for all the important work you and the Citizen’s Road Home Action Team has done up to this point.
   
  Your diligence and dedication to informing the public about the challenges of the Road Home Program along with suggestions to help improve the process has shown the type of proactive spirit that will be required from all citizens as we continue to recover.
   
  Please do not hesitate to contact my office if there is anything we can do to help.  We stand ready to support you in your efforts and look forward to working with you and the Citizen’s Road Home Action Team as we rebuild our city!
   
  Very truly yours,
   
   
   
  Jill E. Hickson
  Chief of Staff
  Councilmember at Large Arnie Fielkow


    RESOLUTION
   
  R-07-91
   
  CITY HALL: February 15, 2007
   
  BY:      COUNCILMEMBERS THOMAS AND FIELKOW
   
  WHEREAS, In the course of this nation’s history it has been amongst our highest principles that a government of the people shall also be a government for the people; and
   
  WHEREAS, At certain moments, in certain times, it is incumbent upon that government to remind itself of the duties it owes to its citizens; and
   
  WHEREAS, The Founding Fathers of this nation saw fit to include, in our founding documents, a Bill of Rights for our citizens; and
   
  WHEREAS, The imperative for appropriate government action, accountability, response, and resolve, and resolve has rarely been greater than that of this day; and 
   
  WHEREAS, The citizens of the City of New Orleans, and the State of Louisiana, deserve the clarity and expediency of government at its best; now therefore
   
  BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, That this Council does hereby recommend that the following Louisiana Road Home Program Bill of Rights be implemented and applied immediately:
   
  I.          The right to current and complete rules of the program.
   
  II.         The right to timely processing of each application.
   
  III.       The right to swift and equitable resolution of errors, disputes, and appeals.
   
  IV.       The right to equitable and accurate calculation of benefit and tender of award.
   
  V.        The right to accept initial tender of award without imperiling the right of dispute resolution and appeal.
   
  VI.       The right to simple, equitable, and easily decipherable closing documents.
   
  VII.      The right to simple and equitable rules for lenders, governing the administration of disbursement accounts, expediting, rather than impeding rebuilding.
   
  VIII.     The right to accurate, expedient information regarding the status of individual applications, provided by fully trained personnel within 24 hours of each request.


  IX.       The right to reasonable residency requirements for grants and loans.
   
  X.        The right to equitable rules for grant benefit assignment, or compensation, when a home must be sold.
   
  XI.       The right to affordable or forgivable loans, sufficient to cover any reconstruction gap resulting from low pre-storm valuation.
   
  XII.      The right to the acceptance of a third-party appraisal for pre and post-storm valuation.
   
  XIII.     The right to elevation awards based on the actual cost of elevation.
   
  XIV.    The right to public discussion concerning the condition and disposition of property acquired, by any level of government, through the Road Home Program.
   
  BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Clerk of Council send certified copies of this resolution to Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Louisiana Recovery Authority Chairman Dr.  Norman Francis, Mayor C. Ray Nagin, the Louisiana Congressional delegation and the Orleans state legislative delegation for their immediate attention and consideration.
   
  THE FOREGOING RESOLUTION WAS READ IN FULL, THE ROLL WAS CALLED ON THE ADOPTION THEREOF AND RESULTED AS FOLLOWS:
  YEAS:             Carter, Fielkow, Head, Hedge-Morrell, Midura, Thomas - 6
  NAYS:            0
  ABSENT:       Willard-Lewis - 1
  AND THE RESOLUTION WAS ADOPTED.
   
  G:CCRSCH/RESOLUTS/07-30  
   
   
    CHAT has proposed the following Bill of Road Home Rights that should be granted to the long-suffering Road Home Program applicants by the RHP (officials in LRA, OCD, and ICF).
   
  Bill of Road Home Rights
                                                  (including just some examples of their application)
   
  I. The right to the complete rules of the program. 
  It is the responsibility of the RHP to make current, updated rules available to applicants, to notify them of any changes, and to make those changes retroactive for those who have gone to grant closing. 
  None of the rules or procedures for determining grant awards or affordable loans should be vague or subjective. Some examples of vague descriptions are those for determination of the percentage damage; criteria for affordable loans (which should include a link to the median area income for each parish, http://www.huduser.org/datasets/il/il06/index.html ); the quantitative definition of “within an acceptable range” for the statement that the a homeowner-ordered Louisiana certified appraisal obtained after the storm will not be used if it is not in an acceptable range of the RHP Broker Price Opinion (BPO), a much less accurate form of home evaluation. The rulebook should include several examples for each formula for determining grants and affordable loans because the formulas are sometimes confusing to RHP personnel as well as to applicants.
   
  II. The right to timely processing of applications. 
  There needs to be a timeline for processing applications and a special division to deal with very long delays for many applications, for example, before the award letters are sent as well as afterwards. Inessential verification steps that are bottlenecks to awarding grants should be removed or done after grant closing, since the state will have a lien on the homes of most grantees.
   
  III. The right to a fair and swift resolution of errors, disputes, and appeals. 
  There needs to be a timeline for dispute resolution and appeals and a special division to deal with long delays in resolving these matters. Simple computer input or calculation errors should be fast-tracked. The appeals process should be mandated in the rules to involve a written point-by-point response to all questions raised by applicants in their appeal. 
    
  IV. The right to a fair and accurate calculation of your benefits and tender of your award (acceptance of grant money without losing the right to dispute resolution and appeal). 
  If a homeowner does not have a pre-Katrina appraisal but does order a Louisiana certified appraisal after the storm, the latter should be accepted as the primary determinant of pre-storm value.
   
   
  It is essential to immediately post that awards will be made with unconditional tender of grants, especially given the large number of acknowledged mistakes in award letters and the great delays in dispute resolution.
   
  V. The right to simple, fair, and easily understood closing papers. 
   
  VI. The right to simple and fair rules for lenders to administer grant funds (disbursement accounts) that make it easier to rebuild, not more difficult. 
   
  VII. The right to accurate information about the status of applications by informed and trained personnel within 24 hours of your request. 
  There should be a separate phone number or extension for information about processing of grants that is slower than a standard, posted  timeline (II, above) so that within 24 hours applicants can speak to someone empowered to help them. Applicants are often told for many weeks or for months that their application is “in verification.” Specific information should be given about the nature of any prolonged verification.
   
  VIII. The right to reasonable residency requirements for grants and loans and fair rules for grant benefit assignment or compensation for applicants who must sell their home. 
  It is unfair that the covenant requirement for affordable loans for those of modest incomes is 5 years and not transferable while the grant has only a 3-year requirement and is transferable.
  In addition, it is unfair to subtract 40% for moving out of Louisiana from the pre-storm value instead of the grant total.  The no-insurance penalty of 30% is properly subtracted from the grant total, so the policy is inconsistent. The 40% penalty for moving out of state should be subtracted from the grant total and should not be applied to those with storm-destroyed homes who can live in Louisiana, but only in rental housing.
  It should be stated explicitly in the rules that in case of a disaster affecting the grantee’s home, the covenant will be waived.
   
  IX. The right to receive sufficient affordable or forgivable loans to enable you to rebuild or repair if you have a low pre-storm appraised value. 
  It is not fair that those of middle income with moderate-appraisal houses are less likely than other income groups to get enough RHP money to rebuild. Forgivable loans should be made available to those with 120% or less of the median area income, instead of just to those with 80% or less of the median area income.
   
   
   
   
  X. The right to have realistic elevation awards to encourage applicants to rebuild really safer, stronger, and smarter. 
  Allowances limited to $15 per square foot are a “one size fits all” approach and will often be inadequate to elevate new homes to safe levels.  Road Home Program elevation allowances should be calculated according to the “real cost” used by NFIP’s ICC except that the total cost limit should be set at $60,000 with funds available for elevation under ICC drawn first.  NFIP claim processes could be used to verify that funds are actually spent and that elevation practices are reasonable and appropriate.
   
  XI. The right to have the disposition of RHP-acquired properties benefit grantees and the neighborhoods in which such properties are located, with neighborhood input in the process. 
  It appears that the Road Home Program will "run out" of money before all eligible applicants have received their fair grant award. Therefore, the Board of Directors of the Rome Home Corporation (RHC) and then the LRA Board of Directors should mandate that any profit from the sale of properties must be used to complete the program payout. The RHP should provide current information on the status of available funds vs. forecast expenditures. In addition, the LRA should stipulate that the public must be given adequate notice of meetings of the RHC and that representatives of citizen groups from the affected districts should be allowed to participate in discussions about setting policy for land- use decisions about RHC-acquired property. 
   
   
  From The Board of Directors of the Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT)

   

 
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