[StBernard] UPDATED: Governor Blanco Announces Road Home Changes

[Westley Annis]

**Please note phone number clarification below**

GOVERNOR BLANCO ANNOUNCES ROAD HOME CHANGES; Home appraisal process to be streamlined, more accurate



BATON ROUGE - Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco today announced three policy changes aimed at speeding up and simplifying the Road Home program. Gov. Blanco has continually pressed ICF, the contractor administering the Road Home, to maintain an increasing momentum and improve processes along the way to ensure homeowners get the assistance they need as soon as possible.

"I am pleased to announce these changes in determining awards for homeowners," Gov. Blanco said. "By accepting pre-storm home appraisals and incorporating the most up-to-date values from Louisiana licensed appraisers and agencies, homeowners can be sure they are getting the most accurate pre-storm value available. I want to thank all legislators who continue to join me to work for solutions to bring our people home, and in particular Sen. Ann Duplessis for her help in crafting these changes. With her background in the banking industry she brings a wealth of information and ideas to the table. The Road Home program is an historic undertaking, and we are always striving to improve the methods used to ensure homeowners can get the help they need to rebuild their lives."

The Road Home Program will now utilize more tools to determine an accurate pre-storm value of homes. The program has always accepted pre-storm appraisals for determining pre-storm value. These new policies will no longer use the Automated Value Method (AVM) for the City of New Orleans. This nationally-recognized, reliable, computer model system compiles data on home values neighborhood-by-neighborhood. However, this model did not always reflect the most appropriate pre-storm value for all homes in New Orleans. The Road Home will make the following changes to more reliably reflect the specific values in the disaster area. 

The Road Home Program will now:

- Accept post-storm appraisals for pre-storm value. 
- Incorporate file data from Louisiana licensed appraisers in the storm zone who have the most up-to-date information on home values. 
- Obtain appraisals performed in the storm areas from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Administration, and other agencies that have up-to-date home values on file. 

"These policy changes are the work of many people coming together over the past few weeks to enhance this program," Sen. Ann Duplessis said. "The changes make sense when you consider how diverse the New Orleans housing market is. We have an entire team of local professionals dedicated to the real estate and housing industry, and they will now play a vital role in making the Road Home program work better for our people."

While it is recognized that a limited number of award letters are not accurately valued by AVM, it is expected that the majority of the letters sent out will reflect a fair pre-storm value. As always if a homeowner feels the pre-storm value is not accurate, they can call 1-888-ROAD2LA to ask for a review of their appraisal. ICF will continue to perform a broker's price opinion on every house prior to closing.

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The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
Louisiana's Fund for Louisiana's People
www.louisianahelp.org