[StBernard] Involuntary Demolition

[Westley Annis]

No process will be flawless, but at the same time, consider the spur of
activity since all the "yellow stickers" have been placed on various home
that meet the demo criteria.  Everyone is blaming the road home, but what if
the program didn;t exist.  During Betsy, the only assistance we received was
our sweat equity, a 6% SBA loan (compared to the current 2.87%), and the
Salvation Army came with there trucks three times a day.  (The Red Cross
passed daily, however, any blankets or food that had were for sale. 
 
I regret that your friend's home was demolished in error, but that doesn't
mean we stop the process.  Had everyone acted sooner, we would have been rid
of all the debris before FEMA quit paying for the trash pick-up.  Empty
houses only bring squatters or other problems that we do not need.
 
Again, I understand your friends frustration, and hope that her Road HOme
money arrives soon.  (We have been waiting for 16 months now, and the latest
response was that it was at the title company, so no one can help.

JFR

	-----------------------------------------------------
	A friend of mine had her home demoed last month even though she was
listed
	compliant with ms. Faith in the permits office. AFter speaking to a
number
	of attorneys, she is being advised to file a federal lawsuit, based
on the
	takings clause, and that these postings or listings in the paper
(especially
	the voice as opposed to the St. B News or Times pic which are more
widely
	circulated and accessible) wouldn't hold up as proper notification.
The
	paper would be only a last resort when owners couldn't be found
after proof
	of mailings were not answered. And considering she had been dealing
with Ms.
	Faith, who had current numbers on her, the paper thing may not hold
up.
	While I understand everyone's want and need to have progress,
people's
	property is being taken. In my friend's case, her house (and I say
this
	laughing) only had 3 feet of water. Much of this should be held off
until
	the roadhome program has finished dispersing money, then deadlines
could be
	enacted . Right now how do you hold people accountable when we don't
have
	any other recourse but to wait on that. And in our case, we can't
start
	contruction until our home is demoed (which we signed up for over 8
months
	ago and yet it still sits there). With this unprecedented situation,
our
	leaders would ant to tred slowly.
	
	Wendy H