Get The Money Out
The Executive Board of the Citizens’ Road Home Action Team is presenting a statement to be included in the public record at today’s meeting of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Recovery Authority about how the Road Home Program will be a failure if the administrators and the contractor do not finally get the money out to applicants.
Citizen’s Road Home Action Team
1450 Crescent Dr.
New Orleans, LA 70122
January 12, 2007
To the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Recovery Authority:
The most important priority for ICF, OCD, and this Board of Directors should be getting the grant money out. There are 97,167 homeowners waiting for RHP grants and only 153 have gotten their money.
More than 6000 applicants have received their final award letters and have selected options but only 2% of these applicants have had closings.
It is disingenuous and frankly insulting for ICF to blame the homeowner victims for this pitiful number of closings.
Awarding only 150 grants to less than 2 out of a thousand applicants is not going to do it. This is a thimble of water to a man dying of thirst. ICF must stop making excuses and do the job it is being well-paid to do.
This can be fixed and CHAT offers its assistance. We have people from the private sector with legal skills, management skills, information and technology expertise that are willing to take a look at this in more detail to see if there are improvements that can be made. We will do whatever we can to suggest improvements for fairness and efficiency. CHAT has asked to review the currently proposed closing papers to see if rights (such as tender) are being protected and the if the process can be improved.
But most importantly, we want this Board’s assurance that, before you leave this room, you will make a commitment to rescue this program from failure by holding ICF, OCD, and HUD accountable to make this program work by giving the long-suffering applicants their grant money without any more delay.
This Board has the power and the responsibility to get the money out to the people who are entitled to it and who need it to get their lives back on track.
Tens of thousands of Louisianians are desperate for this help, people from neighborhoods devastated not because of the hurricanes, but because government gave them canal walls that failed. The hope of getting this money has been dangled in front of them, and now they are angry, frustrated and frankly many are giving up because after losing their homes, possessions, their children’s schools, their friends and neighborhoods, this promise of help is being strangled. Now, they feel betrayed by the RHP.
Make sure, whatever it takes, that closings accelerate from the current average of 3 a day to the 500 a day as ICF promised us. Hold them to their promise. Make this happen no later than Feb. 1. At the rate of 500 closings per day, starting Feb 1, the grants will be distributed by the end of 2007, none too soon because rebuilding a ruined house may take 1-2 years after the grant money is awarded.
Anything slower than this is unacceptable and spells failure for the program.
Distribution of at least 500 grants per day must happen with tendering the awards, a proposal CHAT first made two months ago, so that people can begin to receive their money now. This will enable people to appeal without waiting to rebuild and allow for any errors in awards to be corrected without holding up the recovery. More applicants will be able to choose an option if the awards are tendered allowing them to reserve the right to appeal mistakes.
What Needs To Be Done?
The most important priority is to get the money out to the applicants.
Use affidavits more to speed up the process where documentation isn’t quickly available.
Prioritize. Give grants first to those who are rebuilding.
Allow applicants to begin receiving funds to start re-building and escrow those awards conditionally where some part of the verification process is holding up closings.
If necessary, insist on a waiver from HUD for any of the time-consuming checks for fraud to be done concurrently with the award of grants. You have our thumb prints, photos, photocopies of numerous documents, know where we live. You can catch any fraud later. According to ICF’s own reports only 21 cases of possible fraud were encountered in calculated awards for 25,000 applicants. That’s <0.1%.
Set firm timetables for closings by ICF with consequences if those are not met.
Insist on better performance, which will encourage more applicants to sign off on award letters – many ICF personnel are uninformed, unavailable & unresponsive. People leave messages on voice mail and are never called back.
Post a complete list of current RHP rules, regulations, award letter forms, & closing documents, at the RHP website, in the newspapers, in award letters, and distribute these to RHP staff. Included in this should be the current specific and complete methods and factors for determining pre-storm value of the home,
- elevation allowances
- allowed rebuild costs,
- detailed types of deductions,
- rules for repair,
- rules for doubles,
- a statement that post-storm appraisals of pre-storm values by LA certified appraisers provided by homeowners will be accepted as the primary source for grant determination, as previously promised,
- the detailed rules for dispute resolution and appeals with written answers.
We know this is a big program and the job is not an easy one, but please do not fail the people who are most counting on you – homeowners who have showed such devotion to rebuilding despite the many obstacles they face in devastated neighborhoods.
In addition, do not fail the American public and the US Congress that entrusted you to make sure that this 7.5 billion dollars is spent to compensate owners of severely damaged or utterly ruined homes and to rebuild devastated areas. This will not happen if you do not begin to GET THE MONEY OUT in a more timely manner.
People don’t want excuses or explanations about why this program did not deliver the goods — they care a lot less about blame than results.
There is only one thing that is going to work now – ICF has to leave this room today knowing this Board has made this the single most important priority: GET THE MONEY OUT.
CHAT’s current recommendations follow:
CHAT Recommendations
- Accelerate Closings. The RHP though ICF and OCD must rapidly accelerate the rate of closings. Where slow verifications are occurring, use affidavits and allow applicants to begin receiving funds to start re-building and escrow those awards conditionally, with a percentage withheld while RHP completes the verification of FEMA and insurance payments.
- Institute Tender of Awards. Institute promised tender of award money (RHP turns over to escrow accounts the grant award that ICF has determined is due while permitting every applicant the right to appeal the amount). Allow CHAT to review the closing documents on an ongoing basis to insure another voice in protecting applicants’ rights;[1]
- Transparency In the RHP Rules. Post a complete list of current RHP rules and regulations at the RHP website, in award letters, and distribute to RHP staff. Included in the list should be specific and complete methods and factors for determining pre-storm value, elevation allowances and allowed rebuild costs, a statement that post-storm appraisals of pre-storm values by LA certified appraisers provided by homeowners will be accepted as the primary means for grant determination, and an explanation of the exact nature of the residency requirement. Inform applicants who desire but cannot afford to prepay a LA certified appraisal to select an appraiser from a list provided by ICF and to have the cost of that appraisal deducted as a closing cost.
- Quality Control and Responsiveness. Many fewer mistakes must be made and obvious errors must be corrected much faster. Members of RHP support staff are often uninformed, unresponsive, or unavailable. In addition, there should be a fast track for obvious errors.
- Fair Rights for Grant Transfers to New Owners need to be detailed and publicized. Grants should be transferable at any time during the 3-year period of the RHP. Relocation offers and rebuild offers for a totaled home should be consistent with each other, fair and equitable.
- Dispute Resolution and Appeals. Applicants need to be fully informed about dispute resolution vs. appeals on the website and in award letters. Award letters must specify the exact method used for determining each individual applicant’s award. An efficient appeal process provided with award letters needs to be instituted immediately. Appeals must not go to the “back of the line”; ICF advisors need to stop telling applicants this will happen if they appeal.
Yours truly,
The Executive Board of the Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT)
Melanie Ehrlich
Frank Silvestri
Shawn Antee
Laura LeBon
1 CHAT has informally and formally (in a Public Records Request) sought these documents from the State and ICF.
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