[FoCHAT] 2/25/07 Info on updates at the RHP website etc.

Sun Feb 25 15:50:10 PST 2007

Here is an article that I wrote for and just submitted to The Trumpet, the new NPN newspaper.

  It has some URL links to new info at the RHP website that may be useful to many of you.

  Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT)

  The Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT) was formed in the last week of Sept. when problems with the Road Home Program for Homeowner Assistance (RHP) were already evident. Our mission is to make the RHP much faster, fairer, more transparent, and more sensitive to the needs of the homeowner applicants. In addition, we want to make sure that the property acquired by the Road Home Corporation is used to the best benefit of RHP applicants. 

  Most important for our advocacy of improvements of the RHP is for you to join Friends of CHAT (FoCHAT), if you are not already a member, and encourage your friends and relatives who care about rebuilding Louisiana to join.  There is no fee and there are no duties to join FoCHAT. 

  To join FoCHAT and stand up and be counted in solidarity with the tens of thousands of frustrated applicants:
  1. Simply send an email message with your neighborhood or district (and city or parish, if not New Orleans) to chatlra at yahoo.com and please put FoCHAT in the subject: 

  2. Also go to http://thinknola.com/mailman/listinfo/fochat and click on the link to fill in your email address. 

  CHAT has spread its message about specific recommendations for reform of the RHP through the media in many published articles, radio shows, and TV appearances (http://chat.thinknola.com). For example, the following editorial was published in the Times-Picayune.

  12/27/06 Times-Picayune
  EDITORIAL: A constructive approach
  Citizens who are pushing for improvements to the Road Home program have reason to be angry with the slow, often flawed process homeowners encounter when seeking grants for their storm-damaged property. 

  But members of Citizens' Road Home Action Team -- or CHAT -- aren't letting anger cloud their judgment. Instead the New Orleans-based group has come up with ways to make the program fairer and faster. Some of those ideas have been embraced by state officials and ICF International, the company managing the $7.5 billion program. 

  State officials agreed to allow homeowners who didn't have appraisals before Katrina to hire appraisers to determine the prestorm value of their flood-damaged home. The state also has agreed to allow payments to homeowners even if they're appealing the grant amount. Those are important changes since property values are key to determining grant amounts. 

  CHAT has offered a concrete agenda that is far more helpful than calling for the contractor's termination. That's the approach that the state Legislature took, but CHAT pointed out that firing ICF would just cause more delays for homeowners. 

  Over the past 16 months, Louisianians have learned that they must be their own advocates when it comes to recovery. Groups like CHAT have taken up that mantle. It's encouraging that they are speaking out -- and that the state is listening.

              A short list follows of RHP issues in which CHAT has had a major, positive role

  1. Tendering awards so that applicants do not lose the right to appeal erroneous awards while accepting the grant money offered in their award letter; this was first recommended to RHP officials by CHAT Co-Chairman Frank Silvestri and is now posted at RHP website:
  http://www.road2la.org/Helpful-Tools/default.htm  and 
  policyhttp://www.road2la.org/Docs/Benefit_Election_Letter2.pdf;

  2. Allowing homeowner-supplied pre-storm appraisals of homes made after the storm by LA certified appraisers for pre-storm valuation; these appraisals are much more complete and expert than what was being done by the RHP and will correct very large numbers of RHP errors; an unanticipated qualification have been put on the use of homeowner-provided LA certified appraisals (http://www.road2la.org/Docs/Homeowner_Policy_020407_v3.2.pdf p.14) and CHAT is advocating correction of these;

  3. Improving the closing documents, which have several serious problems for the grantees as they now stand; two lawyer members of CHAT have been working to correct these since a meeting on this issue with RHP officials on 1/26/07 and as of the weekend of 2/24/07, we are making encouraging progress;

  4. Posting all the rules for determining the amount of RHP awards at the website, which has now been done (http://www.road2la.org/Docs/Homeowner_Policy_020407_v3.2.pdf) including assignability of (RHP rights to a new buyer, http://www.road2la.org/Docs/Assignment_Fact_sheet.doc); CHAT has serious concerns about some of the rules, which we are working on;

  5. Posting of the blank form documents for the RHP program, including the award letter form: http://www.road2la.org/Docs/Benefit_Election_Letter2.pdf;

  6. removing the requirement that homeowners (even out-of-town homeowners) be present at the house evaluation for a home with >51% damage; this "evaluation" for severely damaged homes only involves verifying >51% damage and measuring square footage of the home; first advocated in early Oct. by CHAT in a meeting with Walter Leger, Sam Jones, and Mike Byrne, all of whom have pivotal positions dealing with administration of the RHP.

  Importantly, the New Orleans City Council just unanimously adopted an historic resolution in favor of a Louisiana Road Home Program Bill of Rights. This document, which was sent to the Governor, the LRA Chairman Dr. Norman Francis, Mayor Ray Nagin, and to congressmen, is only slightly modified from the document that we submitted to them for their consideration. Several other Louisiana Parish Councils are about to vote on resolutions advocating that the LRA grant this Bill of Rights.

  Melanie Ehrlich
  Founder and Co-Chairman of CHAT
  http://chat.thinknola.com

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