[FoCHAT] 5/25/07 CHAT Message from Frank Silvestri about DC testimony & waiting a bit before sending the letters to legislators

[Melanie Ehrlich]

 CHAT is talkng to LRA and OCD about steps that can be taken to 
deal with the immediate crises and are working on possible solutions 
that, if implemented could get us closer to goals, - now including making 
sure there are adequate funds for grants and getting elevation money 
restored.
      I am convinced Sen. Landrieu is going to do all she can to help, 
but she needs ammunition and a lot of help from the LRA and OCD in the 
form of accurate information about the shortfall.
      More about all that later, including possible letters we can send 
to state and congressional representatives and your own stories that 
need to go to the Homeland Security subcommitee.
      I was told last week when invited to appear panel witneses would 
get to submit written testimony, which is in the record and may be 
found at the senator's website and that the oral presentation would have to 
be strictly limited to 5 minutes.
      I worked with a number of people this week on getting the things 
I believed we wanted to say into that 5 minutes speeh.  Unfortunately, 
the first panel witnesses went long and when we were brought up we were 
asked to keep the opening to 3 minutes. Nedless to say, hasty on the 
spot editing and trying to maintain the force of the powerful perosnal 
accounts of the three homeowenrs who went before me resulted in a lot of 
important things left on the cutting room floor.
      For anyone interested, the five minute speech I hoped to give 
follows
      fas

   
    I am Frank Silvestri, a lawyer, new Orleans native and co-chair 
of the Citizens’ Road Home Action Team, an entirely volunteer group of 
New Orleanians who want nothing more than to rebuild their city, their 
home.
      120,000 flood victims still waiting for a grant check.  The Road 
Home program is running out of money, cutting awards that were already 
inadequate for those who so desperately need the federal government's 
help.
      Neither the state of Louisiana nor the federal government should 
let this happen.  The people this program was intended to help are 
hard-working, honest homeowners determined to rebuild their lives.  But 
they have been stretched to the breaking point and time is their enemy.   
Many have come back, many more want to return, but they cannot do it 
without the continued help of Congress and a substantially better 
Program.
                  CHAT members have worked with LRA and Road Home 
officials to promote reforms in the grant process, including using more 
accurate appraisals, allowing grant recipients to accept their awards 
without losing appeal rights, getting  the rules published, correcting 
unduly restrictive provisions in  “closing” documents, and, proposing a Road 
Home Applicants Bill of Rights, which was adopted by four parish 
councils, and, in modified form, by the LRA.
                  CHAT’s experience with LRA officials has been open 
and frank.  
      Unfortunately the same cannot be said for applicants’ experiences 
with the program.  The persistent lack of  communication between 
front-linepersonnel and applicants who cannot get information about their 
files has compounded the problems for tens of thousands of people, most of 
whom have been out of their homes for nearly two years.
      We Know

- Ignored:
      The program’s initial performance was dismal.    Policies seeed 
less concerned with helping applicants than protecting the government.  
The LRA makes policy, but the Office of Community Development runs the 
program and is responsible for overseeing ICF, the contractor.  Even 
then the LRA and OCD are answerable to FEMA, HUD and federal regulations.
      And there is red tape, both federal and state.  CHAT understnds 
FEMA and the LRA are still battling over 1.1 billion dollars in funds 
promised by the federal government and counted on by the state.  
Recently, HUD changed policy requiring the state to issue all grants as lump 
sum awards.  How much time was lost by miscommunication and this sudden 
policy reversal?    
      The suspicion that Louisiana is treated differently from other 
states is borne out by the federal government’s refusal to this day to 
waive the 10% matching payment for disaster relief that was waived for 
New York after 911 and Florida after Hurricane Andrew.  Anti-fraud 
measures required by the Stafford Act and compounded by the Road Home Program 
have also slowed the program.  The presumption seems to be 
Louisianaians are dishonest.  A fingerprint and a mug shot are part of the process.  
In fact, program statistics show there have been very few instances of 
fraud suspected in nearly 140,000 applications received .  Surely it is 
more important to get the grant money quickly into the hands of a 
hundred thousand deserving people than to spend a fortune and bog the 
program down trying to find a handful of cheats.
      What Can Be Done?
      The program must be adequately funded to prevent a shortfall as 
great as 4 Billion dollars.  
      That FEMA damage estimates did not accurately capture the 
complete magnitude of the destruction does not make the problem any less 
severe, only more urgent.  It also apparently substantially underestimated 
the damage to the city’s infrastructure.  Nor should it surprise any one 
that there was less insurance coverage than predicted and that some 
insurance companies would dishonor legitimate claims.  Such questionable 
practices by insurers  warrants further Congressional inquiry.
      This Committee and the Congress should stand squarely for the 
principle that no victim of this catstophe should be left behind or told a 
grant has to be cut because there isn’t enough money.  
      It is widely held that under-funding of federal flood protection 
contributed to the failure of the canal walls that flooded New Orleans.  
Short-changing Road Home Applicants at this point would be equally 
shortsighted and hurt our recovery. 
                  Equally important, the performance of the Road Home 
program must improve substantially; getting people out of FEMA trailers 
as quickly as possible.  The program has made dramatic progress in 
recent months  closing on grants faster, but still only fifteen percent of 
those eligible to receive a grant have been paid.  
      Two months ago, CHAT proposed the LRA undertake an independent, 
rapid, in-flight review of ICF and OCD systems and processes that would 
not interfere with the operation of the program, could identify 
bottlenecks, and propose solutions to improve efficiency and fairness, 
including a review of policies. The LRA agreed, but it isn’t happening, and 
there is concern the scope of such a review should not be unduly narrowed 
limiting its effectiveness.   
      FEMA and HUD regulations that the LRA contend slow up the process 
must be rapidly identified, examined, and eliminated if at all 
possible.
      The Road Home Program’s slogan of rebuilding safer, stronger, 
smarter can’t happen without elevation grants.  The cost to rebuild is a 
separate thing from the cost to elevate.  Both need to be adequately 
funded to do any good.  Such money is far better spent on elevation than 
having to deal with the consequences of another flood.  Elevation money 
is urgently needed in grants now because elevating the foundation comes 
before re-building a house – instead, these grants are being cut or 
deferred because of the shortfall.  This will only further slow New 
Orleans, recovery.  
      National disaster insurance, like national flood insurance would 
make coverage affordable for everyone and fairly and evenly spread the 
risk.  It is particularly needed by Road Home grantees who can’t afford 
insurance from the few companies writing coverage in Louisiana.  
      What Can We Hope For?
                  We are rapidly approaching another hurricane season. 
Last year an elderly woman, Stella Chambers, living in Gentilly not far 
from my own home, was killed when a tornado struck her FEMA trailer.  
It was reported to have been her last night in the trailer before a 
planned return to her nearly finished home. 
      What happens in the next few months if a hurricane, or even a 
tropical storm, comes through New Orleans with 16,000 people living in 
FEMA trailers, waiting for Road Home money?   If grant money does not get 
into the hands of the people for whom it was intended very soon, it 
will prove too little, too late, for too many.
                  On September 15, 2005, the President stood in Jackson 
Square and said:
                  “. . . we will do what it takes. We will stay as long 
as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their 
lives.”
                  That pledge remains largely unfulfilled.  Most of 
New Orleans is still devastated as you well know.  Your help is urgently 
needed to finish the job, help us improve the Road Home program and 
help the hundred and twenty thousand still stranded on it.
                  Thank you.     
      Frank A. Silvestri
      CHAT Co-Chair,  May 24, 2007 
         

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.thinknola.com/pipermail/fochat/attachments/20070525/2fca967d/attachment.html