[FoCHAT] CHAT Mtg. & Contacting Politicians about the Road Home Program & Louisiana's Recovery

[Melanie Ehrlich]

CHAT Meeting, 7/25/07
   
  UNO Old Bus. Admin. Rm. 212 on Wed. 6:30 PM.
  Directions to the Business Bldg  are given on the Campus Map for UNO. The URL is http://www.uno.edu/university/maps/maincamp.cfm. The Business Bldg is #7 on the map .
   
   
  Agenda
   
  1. Update on RHP & outreach to politicians (see below)- Melanie & Discussion
   
  2. Update on RH Corporation and land re-use and maintenance issues- Steve  & Discussion
   
  3. Elevation allowances- KC
   
  4. Planning for the 2nd Anniversary of the hurricanes/flood- Discussion
   
   
  State and federal officials have let storm victims down  We need to take our leaders to task for their slowness, their political priorities, their indifference to the suffering of too many Louisianians still living in unsafe FEMA trailers or under great economic hardship in other temporary housing, and to their acceptance of an infrastructure that was bad before the storm and that will be intolerable without massive overhaul soon.
   
  Please call the U. S. Congressional switchboard operators at (202) 224-3121 (give your state and zip code)and say that we can’t let the 100,000 homeowners still waiting for grants in Louisiana suffer much longer. Please call the White House switchboard (202) 456-1414 (between 10 and 4 on weekdays) and say that we need much help from Chairman Powell’s Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding.
    
   Fund the shortfall in the Road Home Program and get the money to the State of Louisiana as soon as possible 
    
   Take the FEMA money already appropriated for the Road Home Program but being held up by red tape and put it into the Road Home Program for elevating and repairing houses without further delays. 
    
   Remove unfair tax burdens and SBA loan immediate-repayment requirements from grant awards. 
  Please call the Governor 225 342 7015 and the candidates for governor including US Rep. Jindal (202)225-3015 and LA Sen. Boasso (504) 270-9258. 
Ask them what are their plans to make the grants fairer and faster and to deal with the shortfall of funding. 
   
  Ask the Governor to insist on the two promised "in-flight" independent reviews of the operations of the RHP and ICF to finally begin. The LRA Board asked for such a review to start right away in April! Problems with the RHP need to be fixed not only because of the many unfairnesses, inaccuracies, and delays in the program, but also to give the state a better chance to get Congress to approve funding the shortfall.
   
  Melanie Ehrlich
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