[StBernard] Orleans tops Road Home

[Westley Annis]

Orleans tops Road Home
Lion's share of grants in New Orleans area

By JOE GYAN JR.
Advocate New Orleans bureau 
Published: Sep 21, 2007 - Page: 13A 

Orleans Parish homeowners have accounted for nearly a third of the
184,000-plus applications to the state's "Road Home'' hurricane repair and
buyout program and almost half of the more than 50,000 grant closings so
far, according to the latest program figures.

More than three-fourths of the applications have come from five parishes -
Calcasieu, Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard and St. Tammany - and more than
half have been filed by homeowners in Orleans and neighboring Jefferson, the
Road Home figures show.

Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard and St. Tammany have accounted for 85
percent of the grant closings to date, the figures indicate.

The Road Home provides grants of up to $150,000 for uninsured losses from
hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Homeowners had to have suffered major
or severe damage from the storms. The application deadline was July 31.

More than 70 percent of the 184,600-plus Road Home applicants say they
intend to keep their homes, about 9 percent say they will sell but stay in
Louisiana, slightly more than 1 percent intend to sell and move out of the
state, and 11 percent have not reached a decision.

As of Sept. 10, more than $8.3 billion in benefits had been calculated for
122,000-plus homeowners. More than $3.2 billion had been disbursed as of
Sept. 6. Grants have averaged more than $72,300.

At the current pace of grant closings, state Legislative Auditor Steve
Theriot said, the Road Home program - funded with $6.4 billion in federal
recovery money - will run out of cash in October if additional funding is
not provided. Gov. Kathleen Blanco plans a trip to Washington, D.C., next
month to lobby for more federal money.

Among the parishes with the most Road Home applications, Jefferson,
Calcasieu, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa have the highest percentages of
homeowners who say they want to keep their homes. Jefferson is tops at 89
percent, followed by Calcasieu and St. Tammany with 82 percent.

St. Bernard, which was devastated by Katrina, has the lowest rate of
homeowners wanting their keep their homes at 40 percent, followed by Cameron
at 56 percent and Plaquemines at 57 percent.

St. Bernard has the highest rate (34 percent) of homeowners who intend to
sell but stay in Louisiana.

In terms of sheer numbers, Orleans has the most homeowners (1,180) who plan
to sell and leave the state, followed by St. Bernard with 630. Cameron has
the highest rate of undecided homeowners at 28 percent, followed by
Plaquemines at 23 percent and St. Bernard at 21 percent.

In Orleans, a review of ZIP code data shows that more than 19,500 Road Home
applications have come from eastern New Orleans, more than 9,100 from
Gentilly, more than 7,000 from the 9th Ward (upper and lower) and more than
5,200 from Lakeview.

More than 70 percent of the homeowners in eastern New Orleans and Gentilly
say they want to keep their homes, according to Road Home data, while only
57 percent of Lakeview's homeowners and 65 percent of 9th Ward homeowners
say the same thing. Many homeowners in those four parts of the city are
undecided on their next course of action.