Vickey Clark recently went to City Hall to try once again to get funding to repair her house, which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but she left frustrated and still confused about the state’s elevation and reconstruction grant process. Clark attended the Thursday meeting where officials from the state’s Office of Community Development were asked questions about financial help from local residents facing similar problems.
“If you call them, they’re not helping you,” the East New Orleans resident said. “You have to keep coming to the meetings and keep pushing.”
Clark’s feeling of frustration mirrored the tone of the meeting, where more than 100 people came for answers on the status of their home recovery grants and other city recovery programs. The crowd and state and local lawmakers took their frustration out on representatives from the state’s Office of Community Development’s Disaster Recovery Unit.
The office, which runs the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, was accused of lying to the public about who would get money to rebuild their homes, not telling potential grant recipients where to go to check their grant status, and not helping those who called for assistance.
“We don’t want people coming to these meetings with false hope that they will be helped if they’re not,” said state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, chairwoman of the Select Committee on Hurricane Recovery. She said the people still waiting to hear if they will get money are in a state of purgatory.
People are holding off making decisions about their lives, state Sen. J.P. Morrell told Office of Community Development representatives.
Morrell, D-New Orleans, said that although the representatives said there is a limited amount of funds, he still sees television announcements from contractors telling homeowners to apply for the grants.
At this point, a man in the audience shouted, “Give us our money!”
The elevation grants are awarded to help homeowners raise the level of their homes to prevent future flooding. To be eligible, houses need to meet a number of criteria, including a minimum floor elevation and waterproofing standards.
Debby Berthelot, who applied three times for an elevation grant, said she had already bought thousands of dollars of furnishings for her damaged house when she was told she had to give back the $41,998.80 check she received in February to elevate and renovate her house. The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program sent the check to her uninhabited home, she said.
She found out later that her house didn’t meet several of the requirements. So she received phone calls demanding that she send the check back.
Christina Stephens, Disaster Recovery Unit communications director, said the office is trying to improve communication with homeowners throughout the grant allocation process.
“We’re working with the applicants who spoke last night and others sent to us by their legislators to go over the details of their cases and make sure that we’re doing everything we can to get them award funds if, in fact, they’re eligible for these grants,” Stephens wrote in a statement. The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program has given out approximately $252 million to more than 6,200 people, according to the Office of Community Development.
Pat Forbes, interim director of the Disaster Recovery Unit, said that his office is not trying to hide anything from the public and that people can check their grant status online.
“Contrary to popular belief, we’re striving to improve our program,” Forbes said.
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