[FoCHAT] CHAT: Laundry List for Substantial Reform of the Road Home Program

Sun Jan 27 09:22:12 PST 2008

Dear Friends of CHAT (FoCHAT),

  Welcome to the many new FoCHAT members from last week.

  Please see our website regularly for lots of information. I am going to try to get help in establishing a table of contents that leads our many readers to the item they want to read. I am just a novice at webdesign.

  http://chat.thinknola.com

  Next CHAT Meeting 

   Time: Meetings on Wed. at 6:30 PM at UNO, usually every other week 

   Place: UNO Old Business administration building, on Milneburg Rd. (the road where the brand new dorms are, past the stop sign and the University Center and opposite the Fitness Center.
Building #7: Directions to the Business Bldg are given on the Campus Map for UNO 

   NEXT MEETING Jan. 30. Newcomers are welcome and can give a 2-min description of where they might be in the processing of their Road Home application.
  If You Need Help With Road Home, Below Are Free Services Available To You    
   504-301-3112 (For outside New Orleans: 1-888-409-3557) Acorn Housing for help with Your Road Home process or Option Letters, Closing Papers, or mortgage problems   
   1-866-996-4243 Easter Seals for help for the elderly of disabled with Your Road Home process or Option Letters, Closing Papers, or mortgage problems   
   504-301-3112 (For outside New Orleans: 1-888-409-3557) Acorn Housing for help with credit counseling or home repair loans

  Seeing is Believing

  Some of the items needed to be seen before we know that this week's promises of LRA/OCD/ICF reform is real.

  We will know that substantial reform for applicants is really underway when we see the following for:

   the much more than 90,000 applicants waiting for grants, 

  untold numbers (we want ICF to tell the public the numbers) of others awaiting fair appeal resolutions, second disbursements, or true dispute resolution (it is not dispute resolution if only one side knows the “outcome” of a dispute; disputes by definition involve at least two parties; surely the aggrieved party should get a notice of the outcome)

  THE ROAD HOME LAUNDRY LIST 

  all the applications from 2006 being quickly and fairly processed 

  while some of the applicants who wrote to us last week about being in the group of 13,000 eligible applicants from 2006 have been contacted in the last few days by ICF after no contact from many months (that is very good) others report that they have not

  fair processing of the early applicants involves not only those who ICF calls eligible but also fair reconsideration of those shoved into the ineligible category just at the time that the Housing Task Force of the LRA was putting pressure on ICF to get rid of the backlog of early applicants from its files 

  this sounds too much like the cleaning up of dispute resolution cases that were more than 2 months old which happened in way that smacks of impropiety (see our website for details)

  notices mailed to applicants about written documentation reform (CP189A) and review of applicants paid-for certified appraisals that may or may not be in RHP’s files because RH often refused to look at them (CP188G)

  that all applicants who request it can promptly get all their data without threats (see T-P letter to editor today), ridiculous demands that we heard this week about applicants needing to drive for miles to pick it up, or non-answers that we heard this week and in the past of sending only the original data given by applicants at their first interview

  that dispute resolution staff promptly schedule field review appraisals and stop shunting applicants who need these into the black hole of appeals

  that appeals deadlines are extended in accordance with CP100C for those who get their data, whether or not they went to closing

  that the rules for processing appeals and dispute resolution are given in detail

  that ICF stops forcing applicants to go to closing and telling them that they cannot appeal if they do not go to closing (a statement which is against RH rules but which we have heard so very many times in descriptions from applicants)

   that OCD insists that ICF truly resolve with written notice all past dispute resolution cases that were not fairly resolved http://thinknola.com/files/chat/DisappearingDisputeResoln_from8_07__1_20_08.pdf

  that ICF starts finding its own mistakes in processing and contacts applicants with more accurate grants

  that the more than 140 members of the Dispute Resolution team have to give the reason for why they change numbers in applicants’ electronic Road Home file in a box when they change those numbers and that a supervisor checks it

  that the above normally expected documentation of changes in people’s grant data or calculation not only be documented and checked by a supervisor in the future, but also, be filled in and checked for all applicants, including those who went to closing

  that policy is straightened out so that the % damage never is <50% for someone with >3  ft of water in 1-story house or 8 ft in a 1 and 1/2 story house

  that policies and practices for additional compensation grant calculation and disbursement are restructured, consistent with HUD rules, so that they are as advantageous as possible for the qualified applicants

  that phone calls from applicants are no longer very often ignored by ICF and First American and HGI

  that those who had to sell at a loss before or at the beginning of the RH and were led to believe that they could get a grant are put back in line

  that applicants stop reporting to us (have several just this week) that they sent info in time in compliance with the 2-week time limit for appealing applicants to provide documentation (and have certification of receipt by RH on time) but RH says that they did not receive on time and so they are booted out of that level of appeal and have to go the higher, more difficult one

  that an applicant does not have to be fingerprinted a third time for a second disbursement, but rather can have a simple bank transfer

  that the title companies really help people at closing instead of rushing them through and having the trap of applicants not realizing that they must both check a box on a closing paper to appeal and send an appeal letter

  that ICF gets its computer files straightened out with expert help so that applicants are not told that they won their dispute resolution, only to have a reversal later because the proper documents were lost

  that ICF stops doing unjustified repeated re-appraisals of PSV or Est. Damage not requested by the applicant and then takes the lower of the values for grant calculation

  that ICF’s and OCD’s promised case management becomes a reality (unlike when it was promised by ICF in Apr. 2007 and OCD in Sept. 2007) and becomes applicant-oriented (the way the RHP should be) with input from applicants about their problems welcomed and questions from applicants given prompt correct responses 

  that the title companies stop re-evaluating some applicants titles up to 6 times when there is nothing complicated about the title and no challenge to it

  that when strange complications arise, like RH "finding" that an applicant sold their house last month without telling them, they check first with the applicant because it may be their mistake (real example, RH mixed up names for one applicant and addresses for another)

  that OCD stops saying large numbers of examples of inexcusable mistakes are just the occasional exception expected in any extremely large program and uses this as reasoning for not doing thorough investigation to fix these problems so that they do not happen again and again

  that LRA and LRA Board themselves proactively work on making their May 2007 Statement of Principles a reality by working actively to put into effect those that are now ignored; many of the above problems are violations of those principles (http://road2la.org/about-us/principles.htm)

  that important data from ICF/OCD on applications, dispute resolution, appeals, second disbursements is not withheld for months until it looks a little better

  From my 5/31/07 notes at the first meeting of HTF after my appointment to that committee, I asked,"
  ME Where are easy parameters like # applic. with award letter or with closing for each of the first 3 mo that CHAT & the Wkg Gp of the HTF has been asking regularly over the course of months?"

  There was no answer.

  At the Jan. 4 HTF meeting, open to the public, an item on the agenda was:

  1.                  ICF Report – Response to Questions Raised at October 9, 2007 Meeting

  With a further explanation from Leger distributed before the meeting including:

   I.   Statistics on early applicants                 
  Information on the applicants who enrolled in each of the first 6 months of the full (not pilot) program is needed. (Do not count those who did not yet show up for interviews or applied for only elevation allowances).  For each month, October 2006, November 2006, December 2006, January 2007, February 2007, and March 2007, please provide,
        1.  The number of applicants as described above
  2.  The number of award letters sent from these applicants
  3.  The number of these applicants who went to closing

  Al Blankenship, spokesperson for ICF, said he had those data but did not give it to the committee during the meeting, despite being asked for it by me during the meeting. Given the lateness of the hour (it was about hour 4 of the 5-h mtg), I said please send it to all of us right after the meeting.

  Melanie Ehrlich

  From the LRA

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  January 25, 2008
  MEDIA CONTACT:
  Melissa Landry
  Louisiana Recovery Authority
  225.342.1788
  melissa.landry at la.gov 

  LRA, OCD Meet with ICF Officials to Address Road Home Issues
  Team Works Together to Improve Program for Louisiana Residents
  BATON ROUGE, La. (January 25, 2008) -- At the request of Governor Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana Recovery Authority's (LRA) new Executive Director Paul Rainwater, the Division of Administration's Office of Community Development (OCD) Executive Director Suzie Elkins, and Disaster Recovery Unit (DRU) Director Mike Taylor convened a meeting with members of ICF International's program management team on Wednesday to discuss progress in The Road Home program and develop an action plan for moving forward. 
  "While the Road Home program has made significant strides in recent months, we all know there are still delays in the program that need to be addressed," said Rainwater. "Governor Jindal has directed us to work closely together to remove these barriers, produce new efficiencies in government, provide transparency and ultimately show even greater progress. These were the issues that we discussed with ICF this week. 
  "As a result of our meeting, ICF has committed to provide greater transparency for homeowners to relieve the frustration that comes from uncertainty. They've also committed to improve direct communication to homeowners through more aggressive case management. Specific performance indicators will be incorporated that place additional emphasis on reducing the processing time for homeowners including penalties for poor performance. We will also be reviewing policies and procedures to see if there are other ways to speed up the process, without sacrificing quality. Details of these agreements will be forthcoming in days and weeks ahead, but today, homeowners should be assured that we are united in our efforts to improve the quality and pace of this program. As Governor Jindal has said, we must, we can and we will do better."
  On Wednesday, OCD staff briefed Rainwater on plans to implement an aggressive case management program for tracking and resolving difficult cases. Beginning in February, all open and active applications will be assigned a Personal Application Liaison (PAL) who will be the applicant's direct contact through closing. Road Home applicants will receive notice of their PAL in early February. 
  "We welcome Paul Rainwater to the LRA and look forward to working with him to keep the momentum of the program going," said Elkins. "Paul has expressed his desire for ICF to streamline Road Home processes wherever possible, improve customer service and transparency and ensure that progress continues in the coming months. We share these goals and we are excited to have his participation as a partner in this unprecedented effort."
  "I am confident that we are united in our efforts to improve the quality and pace of the Road Home program," said Taylor. "While over 93,000 homeowners have closed on their grants and approximately 95% of grants calculated thus far, we know that we cannot rest until all of our homeowners have been served."

  that ICF stops forcing applicants to go to closing and telling them that they cannot appeal if they do not go to closing (a statement which is against RH rules but which we have heard so very many times in descriptions from applicants)

  Best wishes,

  Melanie

  Melanie Ehrlich
  Co-Chairman of CHAT

  http://chat.thinknola.com
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