It never made much sense for the state of Louisiana to be suing its own citizens over Road Home grants, more than a decade after the chaotic hurricane recovery program wound down.
But the state was doing so aggressively, filing against 3,500 families who received $30,000 grants in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita under a program designed to encourage residents to raise their homes as a hedge against future flooding. That meant one-ninth of the grant recipients were facing off against the might of their own state government over a grant program that was poorly administered and poorly understood -- often by the people in charge of it.
So it was welcome news last week when the John Bel Edwards administration announced it was pausing the lawsuits.
The dispute goes back to the closing chapters of the three-year Road Home era, when the state was moving aggressively to spend the program's remaining money. Under the initiative, residents could receive $30,000 grants to elevate their homes. But it cost much more than that to do the work, perhaps three or four times more. Some homeowners managed to tap into other disaster relief programs and some put their own money into their home elevations. Others, however, discovered over time that their grants were inadequate for the task.
In some cases, the state Office of Community Development and its contractor, ICF Emergency Management Services, distributed grants without verifying that the recipients were eligible, according to testimony of a top state official. Many homeowners who received the grants said Road Home representatives told them they could use the money for other rebuilding projects.
Eventually, the mishaps of the Road Home program faded from memory except, apparently, at the federal department of Housing and Urban Development, which pressed the state -- over the course of two presidential administrations -- to recover money from property owners who did not elevate their homes.
About 32,000 homeowners received the grants, and attorneys commissioned by the state charged off into court, seeking to recover $103 million. So far, the state says it has recovered about 5% of that from 425 families.
Alice Sanders, who lives on Social Security in Baton Rouge, says one of the state-hired lawyers "badgered" her to agree to $200-a-month payments by suggesting she could lose her home.
"It's a sin, what they have done against their own residents," she said.
The state-hired law firm, Shows, Cali & Walsh, disputes Sanders' description, and Pat Forbes, executive director of the state Office of Community Development, said he does not believe that attorneys representing the state were threatening to take peoples' homes.
Edwards' Commissioner of Administration, Jay Dardenne, said Monday that the state was pausing the legal actions and has agreed to settle a related lawsuit against ICF.
He said that if Washington approves of the agreement, the state would drop the homeowner lawsuits.
"I think we are inching very close to that happening," Dardenne said. He said he and Edwards have spoken with HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge about accepting the deal.
Much of the legal action has centered on New Orleans, where most of Katrina's flooding damage occurred.
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat who represents the city, was also encouraged.
"Conversations are getting more frequent and focused in these past few weeks in the work to end the injustices of the Road Home program," Carter said. "The state should not continue, and is not required to, keep exacting these punishing actions."
-- The Advocate, June 5