[FoCHAT] CHAT: Some Questions and Numbers

[Melanie Ehrlich]

Dear Concerned Citizen,
   
  1. Have you been in dispute resolution or appeals for more than 4 months and suddenly found that your application was not no longer in dispute resolution?
   
  If you received no answer to your dispute and and mistakes are still in the Road Home's calculations and you would like to share your information with CHAT, please contact us at chatlra at yahoo.com with details and contact information (including phone number and present and affected address).
   
   
  2. Has your application been in dispute resolution or appeals at least four months and then was shifted to the inactive file without any explanation? 
   
  If so and if you would like to share information with CHAT, please send an email to chatlra at yahoo.com with details and contact information (including phone number and your present and your affected address).
   
  3. Do you know that the RHP used one of their determinations of pre-storm value for your grant calculation (not a certified appraisal from you) but that it one not the highest one? 
   
  If so and if you would like to share information with CHAT, please send an email to chatlra at yahoo.com with details and contact information (including phone number and your present and your affected address).
   
  4. We have learned from your survey responses (chatforfairness.org), emails, and descriptions at CHAT meetings (next one is Wed. Feb. 27; see the bottom of our web page at chat.thinknola.com for details) that there is an upsurge in applications being inexplicably and inappropriately put in the inactive category. That category is not given in the table below from the Road Home website. 
   
  We are told by RHP officials that you can get your grant out of that category if it is there by mistake although other than going to advisory meetings, calling, sending certified letters, or contacting your legislator for help, it is not clear how.
   
  5. Some Calculations
   
  The amount of benefits calculated is given as $9.5 billion by the RHP.  
   
  According to a Sept. 9, 2007 LRA presentation there was $7.9 billion for RHP homeowner grants. Congress subsequently gave an additional $3 billion dollars explicitly for RHP homeowner grants for a total of  $10.9 billion.  
   
  Apparently the $0.67 billion was for contractor fees does not have to be factored into these numbers, as per the LRA presentation.
   
  According to the data below, there are 3,756 applicants who sold their home prior to their application. LRA and OCD have not yet made a commitment to fund these applicants.
   
   If the average grant amount is used minus the price obtained upon selling the home at a loss (let's estimate $30,000), it might cost the program only about $ 0.1 billion dollars to fund these applicants. Even if (as we hope) the RHP adds the applicants who had to sell at a loss in the few months after the program started and before any appreciable number of grants were awarded (before the end of 2006), the amount of funds required to give them grants would probably still be less than $ 0.2 billion. 
   
  If LRA and OCD decide to fund these applicants who had to sell at a loss in 2006 (as we hope they will), that leaves uncommitted something like $1.4 billion dollars of unexpended RHP funds (for the homeowner program). 
   
  The first priority for these funds should be fixing mistakes that led to shortchanging applicants and denying grants to applicants who should qualify, including extending appeals deadlines for those who obtain additonal data about their grant calculations. 
   
  According to LRA and OCD policy, all applicants are entitled to their full file as of Jan. 1, 2008 but we have been told that this information is not yet routinely transmitted to applicants by email or hard copy.
   
   
  6. Numbers from the RHP website:
   
  Weekly Detailed Statistics as of February 11, 2008
** The following statistics are updated on a weekly basis and include detailed information broken out by parish, this information can be accessed through the "Weekly Program Statistics" link below.** 
            œ
  Total applications recorded to date:  185,106 (final)      œ
  Appointments held

       Initial Appointments Held: 
      
       Advisory Services Appointments Held:
  

166,093* (final)

46,107      œ
  Eligible Applicants:  157,300      œ
  Benefits Calculated:  156,657      œ
  No Funding:  1,337      œ
  Elevation Only:  15,013      œ
  Sold Home Prior to Application:  3,756      œ
  Total Benefit Options Selected: 

       Option 1:

       Option 2:

       Option 3:   132,996

114,120

9,835

2,750      œ
  Amount of benefits calculated:  $9.5 billion      œ
  Average benefit calculation:  $61,066      œ
  Total amount of awards disbursed:   $5.8 billion*      œ
  Average award disbursed:  $59,726*      œ
  Closings scheduled: 
  630      œ
  Closings held: 
  98,359
  Best wishes,
   
  Melanie Ehrlich
  Co-Chairman, CHAT
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