[StBernard] LRA Announces Road Home Disbursement Update

[Westley Annis]

LRA Announces Road Home Disbursement Update

BATON ROUGE, La. (March 22, 2007) - Beginning April 2, 2007, The Road Home program will issue lump-sum awards directly to homeowners without mortgages, the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) and the Office of Community Development announced today. 

Applicants with closings scheduled between now and April 2 may still close on their awards which will be sent to a financial institution for disbursement. Once the new policy takes effect, the full amount of the award will be disbursed.

"We are encouraging homeowners to continue with their closings while we work to quickly implement the new policies," said Michael Taylor, director of the Disaster Recovery Unit of the Office of Community Development. "All homeowners will have the opportunity to take advantage of the options available under the new policies regardless of when they closed on their awards."

The State currently is setting policies for homeowners who hold mortgages on their homes and will announce implementation plans once policies are final. 

"Our conversations with the mortgage companies and banks are ongoing," said LRA Housing Task Force Chairman Walter Leger. "We want their assurance that homeowners will be able to use this money to repair the homes they lost in the storms."

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated South Louisiana, claiming 1,464 lives, destroying more than 200,000 homes and 18,000 businesses and inflicting about $25 billion in insured losses. The Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) is the planning and coordinating body that was created in the aftermath of these storms by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to lead one of the most extensive rebuilding efforts in the world. The LRA is a 33-member body which is coordinating across jurisdictions, supporting community recovery and resurgence, ensuring integrity and effectiveness, and planning for the recovery and rebuilding of Louisiana.

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