WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2009

State takes step forward in housing crisis by working with non-profits

BATON ROUGE, La. --The state of Louisiana took a major step forward on Wednesday with its approval of a pilot program that would provide funds to non-profit organizations within the state to execute home repair programs in communities still badly damaged from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

According to the Louisiana Recovery Authority, $5 million will initially be set aside for the program, though additional resources could be provided if the program proves to be successful.

“We applaud the state’s efforts to work with our non-profit colleagues in helping our citizens rebuild their homes,” said Dr. Monteic A. Sizer, President and CEO of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps. “It’s wonderful that resources are being put into this effort. We have certainly seen the existing needs of our people while doing our own home repair programs and believe groups like the St. Bernard Project, UMCOR, the Episcopal Diocese, Rebuild Calcasieu, Rebuilding Together, and TRAC, among many others, will do an outstanding job in providing assistance to the communities that they serve.”

The Recovery Corps has continued to advocate for a greater role for the non-profit sector in the recovery process. In general, non-profits are able to execute programs more effectively and efficiently than can government entities, thus the need to include non-profits in this important work. Often in time-sensitive situations such as recovery work, the greatest successes are public-private partnerships in which government provides the much-needed resources and private organizations and non-profits execute the programs and deliver services on behalf of the people.

“We recognize that taking public positions around these matters isn’t always popular,” Sizer added. “However, we believe that the people’s interests are more important than maintaining the status quo. It is not unreasonable to think that the people who want the status quo to remain the same will attack the messenger or the agency the messenger represents. Instead, however, those efforts should be focused on solving the people’s problems.

“The Recovery Corps’ only position is that of the people. Whoever can provide outstanding services to our people, we support, whether they be governmental entities or private organizations like ours.”

Since November 2008, the Recovery Corps has allocated approximately $7 million to home repair programs and household establishment programs throughout the state and has partnered with numerous non-profit agencies in executing those initiatives. In doing so, however, it has become clear that there still remains a great need for similar home repair programs and additional direct services for citizens, despite billions of dollars coming into the state from the federal government for individual assistance and human services.

While some of those resources have been utilized on behalf of the people, it is impossible to determine the exact impacts these funds have had on Louisiana residents because there is no system set up to track what funds have come in, where those funds went once they reached the state’s coffers, and what impacts those resources had on the people they were supposed to help.

“These are questions that our citizens need to be asking,” Sizer explained. “They need to call their senators and representatives and call the state agencies. It may sound cliché, but that really is an effective way for our elected officials to know and understand how the people they represent are really feeling.”

The Recovery Corps has also been asking these questions and others of state and federal officials and will continue to do so as the 2009 state legislative session draws closer. The Recovery Corps is currently working with numerous state senators and representatives to propose legislation that would track recovery funding that has come into the state, along with its outcomes. Additionally, the Recovery Corps will push for passage of legislation that would create a long-term human recovery plan for the state of Louisiana.

“These are very serious issues that will bring more accountability to the recovery process and also account for our state’s future,” said Sizer. “We will continue to work for the people and shine a light on those issues that continue to negatively impact the progress of our state. We believe in the people of Louisiana and hope that they will stand with us in fighting for the future of our state.”

ABOUT THE RECOVERY CORPS
The Louisiana Family Recovery Corps is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation based in Baton Rouge, La., and formed in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Recovery Corps’ mission is to facilitate human recovery for the State of Louisiana in the aftermath of disaster, both natural and man-made. The Recovery Corps has partnered with human service and non-profit organizations throughout the state and the country to deliver assistance as effectively and efficiently as possible, allocating more than $80 million to recovery efforts and assisting more than 30,000 households since January 2006.