[FoCHAT] CHAT: Summary appeals & elevn., free contractor forum and useful info about contractors, electricians, etc.

[Melanie Ehrlich]

Dear Friend of CHAT,
   
  1. Here is a letter to the editor published in the main Baton Rouge newspaper that summarizes a few of the recent major problems with the Road Home Program.
   
  http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/16918431.html
   
  Letter: ICF gets break; applicants don’t
   
  Very many Road Home applicants who got their grants know that there were mistakes in their awards which are undercutting their ability to repair or rebuild in Louisiana.
   
  This includes several thousand whose languishing disputes were supposedly resolved by the contractor, ICF, in July 2007 to avoid a contractual fine for not meeting a benchmark. However, the state is giving ICF until May 8 to provide “more convincing proof” that those disputes really were resolved and not just dropped.
   
  So while ICF gets almost a year to try to prove that it does not deserve a fine for failing to meet a contractual benchmark, thousands of applicants are stranded with shortchanged grants that they were pressured into accepting. The applicants are not given the time, data or fair appeals system that they need to get the mistakes reversed, even though some will lose home ownership as a result of not getting a fair grant.
   
  Although the amount of money that the Road Home contractor, ICF, can be paid for Road Home work was increased in December by $156 million, applicants who were encouraged to apply but had to sell their homes at a loss in 2006 are now being told that budget constraints prevent their grants being funded.
   
  Meanwhile, the state is promising a rapid end to the Road Home Program while eating away at the pot of grant money. It is unnecessarily using grant money for elevation allowances, even though there is $1.2 billion in a separate FEMA Hazard Mitigation fund that had been described all along as the intended source of money for elevation and hazard mitigation allowances.
   
  More than $1 billion of Road Home grant money (mostly HUD money) might be spent on elevation allowances and mitigation allowances despite the long-awaited release of FEMA Hazard Mitigation (HMGP) money as of January by an unprecedented cutting of red tape by FEMA. If the state gives out most of the elevation money from the Road Home grant funds, it will thereby save money from this HMGP fund.
   
  That HMGP money came to Louisiana as an automatically transmitted percentage of FEMA money spent on immediate disaster relief in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita hitting south Louisiana.
   
  The use of Road Home grant money as the primary source of elevation grants, unlike the original plan to depend on HMGP money, will prevent the best use of Road Home grant money for fairer grants to applicants in great distress because of these hurricanes that devastated their homes.
   
  Once again, the Road Home Program is losing sight that this federally funded program was supposed to be designed for sake of the applicants, not the contractor and not the state.
   
  Melanie Ehrlich
  founder, Citizens’ Road Home Action Team
  member, La. Recovery Authority Housing Task Force
  New Orleans
   
  2.  
  
  HOMEOWNER'S CONTRACTOR INFORMATION FORUM (LouisianaREBUILDS.info and CHAT)
  Saturday, March 29th 1-5 pm 
  Ashe Cultural Center 1712 Oretha Castle Haley  New Orleans 70113
   
  *Seats are limited. For this free event  
   
  To RSVP, email RSVP at louisianaREBUILDS.info 
  or call (877) 527-3284
   
  Forum Topics include:
   
  · How to find reputable contractors and ensure they have the skills you need 
  · How to avoid or fight bad contractor liens 
  ·Top most common contractor scams
  · How to minimize theft of construction materials and home contents while in the process of rebuilding
  · Elevation (BFE), building codes, permits, and local ordinances that affect construction 
  · Hazard mitigation funding; Funding for elevating or storm-proofing your home
  · How to do some construction work yourself
  · Post-Katrina price guide for rebuilding materials
  · Best maintenance practices for your home
   
  Discussion to be led by experts from a wide range of areas including the State Contractor Licensing Board, Orleans Parish District Attorney's Economic Crime Department, State Attorney General, Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans, and C.H.A.T. approved contractors.
   
  Whether or not you are attending the forum, get and give very useful information about your building contractors, electricians, plumbers, home alarm companies, landscapers, etc. at
   
   http://contractor.louisianarebuilds.info/  
   
  Please write friend of CHAT anywhere in your contractor rating.

Your name will not appear online, only your rating will.
   
   
   
  More information about the free contractor forum at:
   
  http://LouisianaREBUILDS.info
   
   
  3. Sometime this week, I will post the Road Home policy document (change policy document) about inactive applications at our website: 
   
  http://chatushome.com
   
  Best wishes,
   
  Melanie Ehrlich
  Co-Chairman, CHAT
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.thinknola.com/pipermail/fochat/attachments/20080323/2b22e76b/attachment.html