FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2009

Recovery Corps' unique housing series to propose solutions to Louisiana's housing challenges

BATON ROUGE, La. -- In an effort to further understand the true realities facing Louisiana citizens recovering from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike, the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps will produce a series of reports on Louisiana’s housing situation that feature first-hand anecdotes from those who lived through the rebuilding process and proposed solutions based on lessons learned while serving impacted citizens throughout the state.

The five-part series, entitled Broken Homes: First-Hand Accounts of Living Through Louisiana’s Housing Crisis, will focus on five separate issues faced by Louisiana citizens forced to rebuild their homes and their lives in the wake of the devastating hurricanes.

“This series is critical in that it focuses on the plight of our citizens and provides first-hand accounts of what real Louisianians continue to deal with as they try to fully recover from these catastrophic events,” said Dr. Monteic A. Sizer, President and CEO of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps. “It also comes at a very important time in which federal, state, and local leaders are trying to determine how to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars in recovery-related funds associated with housing. This series should be very informative to those making these important decisions and assist them in determining the most effective use for these valuable resources.”

The first report in the series will deal with the lack of affordable housing in Louisiana and how that issue has hampered the rebuilding process for those citizens forced to pay inflated monthly rent payments while also trying to save money to put toward costly home repairs. For many, this has delayed their ability to rebuild, even almost four years after Katrina and Rita devastated much of southern Louisiana.

The second part of the series will focus on other barriers facing those forced to rebuild, including the lack of resources needed to re-establish their households and specific issues faced by the disabled, the elderly, and families with children. Also included will be specific proposals relative to dealing with Louisiana’s most vulnerable populations.

The third report will look into the various insurance issues that have slowed, and at times prohibited, rebuilding, including proposed systematic changes that can be made to reduce these issues in the future, while the fourth part of the series will look into the rampant fraud carried out by dishonest contractors and the negative impacts it caused for those attempting to rebuild.

Finally, the series will wrap up with a look at the fractionalized system associated with recovery assistance at the federal and state levels and the run-around many storm victims faced when applying for aid through the various governmental programs. Specifically, the Recovery Corps will take a look at how the systems are aligned and propose specific solutions to limit some of the bureaucracy associated with recovery assistance.

“This series will not only shed light on some of the biggest problems and barriers experienced by those attempting to recover, but it will also offer real solutions to those problems,” said Sizer. “Despite some of the comments being made and some of the assertions being levied during hearings by panels, commissions, and governmental committees looking into Louisiana’s recovery, all is not well and many of our citizens, especially our vulnerable populations, continue to struggle nearly four years after Katrina.

“Our hope is that, through this series and other series that the Recovery Corps will produce in the coming months, the story of Louisiana’s recovery and the continued challenges of our citizens will be told first-hand and a coordinated set of solutions based on those challenges will emerge.”

The first part of the housing series will be released on Monday, June 29, 2009, with subsequent parts of the series released shortly thereafter.

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.