[StBernard] Road Home checks may start rolling

[Westley Annis]

Road Home checks may start rolling

By JOE GYAN JR.
Advocate New Orleans bureau
Published: Feb 13, 2007

A top manager of Louisiana's embattled Road Home' program told the state's
hurricane recovery agency Monday that the number of people receiving checks
for storm-damaged homes soon will be jumping noticeably.

ICF International, the company running the $7.5 billion program to get
federal grant money to owners of severely damaged homes, has promised Gov.
Kathleen Blanco that 2,300 applicants will be moved to the closing process
by the end of the month.

Mike Spletto, the Road Home senior housing manager at the state Office of
Community Development, told the governor's Louisiana Recovery Authority
during a meeting Monday at the State Capitol that he expects 6,000 closings
in March, 8,000 in April and 10,000 per month after that.

Spletto said he is confident, but not 100 percent certain, that all Road
Home applicants will have attended a closing by year's end.
"We're doing everything possible to make this go faster,'' he said.

As of Saturday, the program - operated by Virginia-based ICF under a
contract with the Louisiana Division of Administration's Office of Community
Development - reported that more than 107,000 applications have been
received. Some 77,000 appointments have been held and 37,000-plus awards
have been calculated, but only 615 closings have been held.

"That's still the pressure point for this program,'' LRA executive director
Andy Kopplin said.

LRA member Walter Leger, who lost his home in St. Bernard Parish to
Hurricane Katrina, said of the Road Home program that the pace "seems to be
picking up (but) not fast enough.''

Before Spletto gave his presentation, the LRA board adopted three
resolutions dealing with recovery money. The board is recommending that the
governor and state lawmakers approve the measures.

One of the resolutions calls for the allocation of $200 million of federal
disaster Community Development Block Grant funds for the "implementation of
long-term community recovery projects in the most heavily affected
parishes.''

The money would be for such needs as housing stock, public safety,
education, health-care, transportation, the environment and the economy, LRA
member John Landry said.

Parishes, in cooperation and agreement with the impacted municipalities
within their boundaries, would select and submit projects to the LRA that
address their local recovery needs.

A second resolution would reallocate $3.5 million of unused or returned
Social Services Block Grant funds to the nonprofit Louisiana Family Recovery
Corps. Blanco created the corps in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and
Rita to meet the recovery needs of Louisiana's storm-affected residents. The
money would be used primarily for rental and utility deposits, LRA member
Calvin Mackie and LFRC chief executive officer Raymond Jetson said.

The final resolution recommends a modification to the state's Small Firm
Loan and Grant program to allow repaid loans in the program to be returned
to the lenders contracted to implement the program.

Currently, repaid loans are returned to the state's CDBG recovery program
for reallocation by the LRA, governor and Legislature. The amendment to the
program would create a revolving fund that would allow the loan funds to
continue to operate as an economic tool for impacted communities, LRA member
Matt Stuller said.

Blanco also updated the LRA on her recent trip to Washington, D.C., to meet
with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic congressional
leaders. The governor said she sensed a "new goodwill coming out of
Congress'' and added, "We're looking forward to good news coming out of
Washington this spring.''

Blanco said she delivered what she called a "top 10 hit list'' to Congress.
The list included removing a provision in federal disaster legislation
requiring the state to pay up to $1 billion, or 10 percent, in matching
dollars for federal money; closing the controversial Mississippi River Gulf
Outlet in St. Bernard Parish, which is blamed for flooding St. Bernard, New
Orleans East and the Lower 9th Ward; quick action on the federal Water
Resources Development Act, which includes critical infrastructure funding
for storm protection; exempting homeowners who claimed a casualty loss
deduction on the 2005 federal income tax return from having to pay the money
back to the Internal Revenue Service upon receipt of Road Home money; more
federal help to combat crime in New Orleans; and more recovery aid to small
businesses.

Blanco said she found the Democratic leadership receptive, adding, "We are
finally seeing a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.''
 

  
 
  
 

  
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