[FoCHAT] From KC King & Melanie Ehrlich at CHAT: important questions & answers about elevation allowances

[Melanie Ehrlich]

Dear Road Home Applicants Interested in the Elevation Allowances,
   
   
  The new Road Home elevation allowance plans are discussed (with some critical missing details) here at the following two links:
   
   http://www.road2la.org/news_releases/elevation_022208.htm and the updated FAQ  http://www.road2la.org/homeowner/faqs.htm#9 
   
   
  The amount of money you can get is unclear but the talk that CHAT hears from an OCD official and an LRA Board Member is that it may be $30,000 for single family owners regardless of the amount spent for elevation and that there will be lower amounts for manufactured (not modular) homes and condominiums.  
   
  The State’s Hazard Mitigation program (HMGP, Hazard Mitigation Grant Program) from FEMA is separate and distinct program from the RH program with its HUD funding through the CDBG (Community Development Block Grants).  
   
  In Saturday’s Times-Picayune (
  http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-5/120374882251080.xml&coll=1),
  it was reported that between the two programs applicants would be eligible for up to $60,000. Is this on top of the current ICC program for elevation costs of those who had flood insurance? 
   
  How will the timing of three programs for elevation be devised? 
   
  We already have problems galore with the great complications that were unfortunately built into the Road Home (RH) grant program. It seems that more are being added with two new elevation allowance programs instead of one.  However, most importantly, money is being taken away from the basic grant program when it seems that the HMGP program has been standing at the gate, ready to go, for many weeks now.
   
  Some of the time lines are confusing and contradictory.  If you take the money, you have to elevate within 3 years of receiving the elevation grant.  This is not consistent with the original time line that says this has to be your primary residence within three years of receiving your original compensation grant.  You would think that any requirement to finish your total recovery work would, at the least, be reset to the latest (elevation) time limits. ICF International is supposed to take on this Road Home elevation contract work in addition to it Road Home grant processing even though this company has such trouble keeping up with grant processing and made so many mistakes for the Road Home applicants in a large part due to deficiencies in best practices.
   
   
  This HMGP program has a March 15th cut of for “pioneers” (those who have already rebuilt, and in this case elevated to above the ABFE mark) to have started their construction.  What does that mean?
   
   
  Safety concerns about the new elevation program follow.
    
  If you sold your Option-1 home after Katrina, the buyer is not entitled to this elevation grant.  As a result original owners are encouraged to elevate but not new owners.  This doesn’t promote total neighborhood safety and property values.  
   
  There is no test for level of damage and this may mean that applicants with one foot of water for 2 hours will get the same as those with 14 feet of water for 15 days.  This will use up needed money to fix shortchanging of the basic RH grants for very many Road Home applicants.
   
  BFE is used to calculate (subsidized) insurance premiums, not assess risk.  Before the hurricanes, there was gross underestimation of the height and extent of hurricane-related flooding and a lack of good engineering and safety-oriented thinking that went into deciding on the existing BFEs.  
   
  Today, the US Army Corps of Engineers publishes maps of flood risk that are much higher in many places than any ABFEs.  Citizens must also think about risks to their lives and properties and the disruption that property damage causes.  
   
  Since Road Home has declared that its elevation program is distinct from any FEMA program, why are they using ABFEs as the standard?  
   
  Since both levee-protected and unprotected areas which were not in flood plains were flooded by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita why not use the actual flood extent and depth to award Road Home Elevation grants? 
   
  CHAT is concerned that homeowners who actually flooded and are continued at risk to flood will not be encouraged to elevate by the criteria for who gets a Road Home elevation allowance. In addition, those RH applicants who elevated even though they did not have to will be shortchanged. This includes one applicant who explained today that she elevated for the safety of her family even though they did not have to since they were 20 yards from the border of a must-elevate district.
   
  This policy needs to be fixed to be about safety first and foremost and using the separate available pot of FEMA money that is supposed to now be available so that the main Road Home money can be used to fix all those mistakes that are driving applicants up the wall or will deprive them of sufficient funds to own their own walls. Some shortchanged Road Home applicants tell us that not correcting these mistakes might even mean homelessness.
   
   Regards, KC King and Melanie Ehrlich, 
   
  CHAT Board Members 
   
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