[StBernard] Road Home

[Westley Annis]

Wendy,

Lucky for you, the Road Home program, should work out well for you (at least
it is in my mind, I still need to run the numbers further below to make
sure...cross your fingers).

The main goal behind the Road Home program is to encourage people to rebuild
or repair their homes, which is what you are doing, so you will see the most
benefit.

Let's look at some numbers.

1) Value of home Pre-Katrina - Let's say $150,000
2) Percent of damage - 90%
3) Cost of damage = $135,000
4) Insurance & FEMA Aid Received = $102,000
5) Uninsured damages = $ 33,000

Using these numbers, you should be eligible for a grant of $33,000.  If this
isn't enough, then you should be eligible for a loan of $102,000.

The Road Home loan program will work differently than the SBA.  First, I
think it is zero interest.  Second, it is being called a "silent loan",
which means no payments are due until you sell the house, at which point the
whole thing is due.  I know they are doing this for rental stock, but I'm
not sure about owner-occupied.

The two things you will need to do is get your pre-Katrina value as high as
possible and your percent of damage as high as possible since these will be
the limiting factors on how much you could receive.

Westley

-----Original Message-----

Wes,
 
  I need your help understanding all of this. While I was insured well, you
and I both know it will NEVER cover ALL of my loss. Now, I had an estimate
over $130,000 if I got contractors to do everything from gutting til I could
turn my key on the door. Now, the gutting was done by volunteers and I plan
on doing a lot of work myself and this will cut those costs drastically. My
flood gave me $100,000 and homeowner's gave me $2,000 on my building and
$40,000 on it's content. I took $112,000 and pd off the house. I've been
told that because I was "so" well covered that I wouldn't qualify for help
from FEMA. When I found this out, I pd off my mortgage to save a fortune in
interest and just figured I would do things a little at a time. Because I
lost my job and the coming hurricane season, I won't qualify for a new
mortgage or home improvement loan. I didn't make enough to qualify for money
from SBA and my "content" money is suppose to replace my content even though
I used some to pay off the house. Like I said, I've been told that FEMA
wouldn't help me because of my coverage, so where do I fall in all this mess
for grants/loans/etc. A loan wouldn't necessarily bother me, it's just
getting one with no job at this point. Until we had definite answers from
the parish/state/etc, I just couldn't see paying $750.00 in interest when
later I could possibly put that into the house. Thanks as always for your
help in sorting out all of the BS.
 
Wendy