[StBernard] LRA sets aside $5 million for program to help Chinese drywall victims

[Westley Annis]

LRA sets aside $5 million for program to help Chinese drywall victims
By Martha Carr, The Times-Picayune 
September 22, 2009, 2:25PM

The Louisiana Recovery Authority today set aside $5 million of federal
Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery money toward a program
to be developed at a later time to recompense homeowners who rebuilt their
houses with contaminated drywall. 

The decision was a small step on a long road toward fulfilling a legislative
mandate in the spring for the recovery authority to create a $5 million
initiative. 

A shortage of building materials after Hurricane Katrina led to reliance on
imported wall boards, including Chinese drywall blamed for health problems,
noxious odors and invasive corrosion. 

LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater said the authority's staff will now
design a program and make it available for public comment. The details of
the application process, eligibility requirements and how the program would
work are all still being developed, he said. 

"You're not even in the batter's box, you're still in the dugout talking
about this thing," Rainwater said in describing the status of the program's
implementation. 

The plan would have to come back to the LRA and a legislative budget
committee for approval. 

The plan also would have to be accepted by the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development, which oversees block grant spending. HUD may require
that recipients certify that they used tainted drywall, and the protocols
for determining that have not been worked out, Rainwater said. 

Rainwater proposed that the money be made available both to participants and
non-participants in the Road Home program. He said he did not know how many
homeowners suffered from the problem or how many might apply for the relief.


In other action, the LRA shifted $40 million in block grant money allocated
to primary and second education recovery efforts to a program assisting
local governments with their infrastructure and hurricane recovery needs.
That plan also will be made available for public comment.