[FoCHAT] From CHAT: Meetings about the Road Home Program

Sun Feb 10 15:36:11 PST 2008

Dear Concerned LA Citizens,

  Our website has been updated with notes from the meeting at City Hall last Wed. on the Road Home Program that was held by Sens. Sheppard and Gray. To get to the links mentioned below, please go to our website: http://chat.thinknola.com

  Senate Committee Meeting on Road Home Program, City Hall, New Orleans, Feb. 6, 2008:   Highlights of the Meeting       
   Sen. Derrick Sheppard said that he thinks that lots of problems would have been solved if Road Home treated people with more respect, returned phone calls, told people the truth even if they think the applicant would not like to hear it. He said that he gets about 6 phone calls a day that nearly send me through the ceiling. 

   Sen Cheryl Gray District said that if people are not told enough at closing and rushed through closing, they are not being treated with respect. 

   Mike Spletto of the state Office of Community Development stated that someone said that the dispute resolution problem [the number of actual cases} was washed under the table. He added that he has staff going through every dispute resolution file to find out if it is really dispute resolution or it is just a procedural matter. 

   Sen. Sheppard said, “Mr. Spletto please turn around. Will everyone in dispute resolution more than 2 months please stand up.” About 20 people stood up. 

   Sen Sheppard then said, “Everyone who stood up, you may see Mr. Spletto at the end of this meeting for him to help you.” 

   For more on the disappearing dispute resolution controversy click to go to this information 

   Seth Weingarten of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance said that African Americans are at a disadvantage with the way that grants are calculated based on home and land appraisals. Discrimination in market values often leads to lower valuations for their houses so that they do not have enough money to repair from their grant. 

   CHAT Comments: The issue of insufficient funding for those with low appraisals was taken up at the first CHAT meeting with Road Home officials (in Oct. 2006) and still is not adequately addressed.   
   There is an unjustified block on giving low-income applicants their additional compensation grant money, that is all their grant money. Instead, there are greatly delayed second closings for the additional compensation grant.   
   These applicants can get the first part of their grant but the part that compensates them for low-appraisals is often delayed for months and months.   
   Therefore, many of the neediest applicants are being delayed in getting grant money for repairing their homes even more than the applicants who are not in the low-income category. 

   One applicant during public comments pointed out that the rules for using three monthly paystubs for calculating yearly income led to her initially being told that she would get an additional compensation grant and then, when she put in a little overtime, being denied that much needed funding to repair her house. 

   Shawn Antee, Executive Board Member of CHAT and Founder of the Edgewater Park Association in Gentilly, New Orleans, said that the Road Home made a moving target out of changes in the dates from which income is calculated for additional compensation grant qualification. 

   LaVerne Saulny from US Senator Mary Landrieu’s office said the problems with the Road Home Program are not decreasing as seen in the more than 50-100 requests for help per week that their office gets from Road Home applicants. It puts Sen. Landrieu in a difficult position because her office can’t get applicants a quicker response than they can get themselves. 

   New Orleans Councilwoman Cynthia Willard Lewis’ remarks are paraphrased below. 
Myself, as an applicant, I know that RH personnel are compassionate but they can’t make a decision to solve a simple problem. I stand with the Mayor and other members of the City Council that the key is to have a program that is fair and simple and ask with a sense of urgency. When you are in BR, maybe you can bring this issue up. If we speak to ethics, where is it when the program does not ask the government to alleviate the pain and suffering of the people. We ask for a new approach and new sense of urgency at the neighborhood level. The L9 was hit not just by Katrina but also by Rita. Why do we segregate out Type 1 and 2 damage, particularly when there is a call to get back to her city? Many people did not understand that getting a certain percentage damage to get a building permit so that they could start repairing. When we talk about accountability, we need to talk about accountability to the families and have a meeting with officials at every ground zero, L9, MidCity,
 Lakeview, NO E, and so on. 

   The unfair application of the drastically different grant calculations for Type 1 (more than 51 percent damage) and Type 2 (less than 51 percent damage)has shortchanged so many applicants who had more than 3 feet of water in a one story house or more than 5 feet in a camel-back house). Just one of many examples that have been described to CHAT involved a grant going from $150,000 to zero because of an unjustified change from Type 1 to Type 2 damage assessment was reported in a Times-Picayune article The applicant still has not gotten a correction of the $150,000-to-zero dollar mistake 

   For a copy of the position paper from CHAT Co-Chairmen Frank Silvestri and Melanie Ehrlich with additional specific requests for major improvement of the Road Home Program and recent relevant letters to the editor and newspaper articles click here 

  If you are still in waiting for a grant or corrections in an unfair amount of your grant, please read below.

      I will post at our website the time for the Housing portion of the LRA Board of Directors as soon as I know it . If you can (we know that jobs and distance restrictions usually don't alow it), come to the LRA Bd. Mtg. and give 2 min of public comments (check your timing first) about your one or two main Road Home problems. To give public comments, you can come to the meeting at any time in the middle but be sure to find the sergeant-at-arms or meeting secretary to get a card to fill out your request to make comments at the end of the Housing part of the LRA meeting.

  Board of Directors Meeting
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Baton Rouge Community College
Louisiana Boardroom
5310 Florida Blvd
Baton Rouge LA , 70806
9:00 a.m.

  Best wishes,

  Melanie Ehrlich
  Citizens' Road Home Action Team (CHAT)

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