Press Releases
HURRICANE ANNIVERSARY MEDIA KIT
Released on August 28, 2007
LOUISIANA FAMILY RECOVERY CORPS OUTLINES PLANS FOR DISTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $7 MILLION IN FUNDS TO ASSIST HURRICANE KATRINA, RITA SURVIVORS AND URGES ESTABLISHMENT OF GAME PLAN
NEW ORLEANS, LA. (AUG. 28, 2007) – The Louisiana Family Recovery Corps will release a request for proposals at 9:38 a.m. CDT on Aug. 29, 2007, to allow Louisiana-based non-profit organizations to apply for access to more than $7 million in funds designated to assist Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors with household establishment needs.
These funds will be available for one-time household establishment needs to non-profit organizations that serve disaster-affected households and meet the Recovery Corps’ funding criteria. Households requiring direct assistance with purchases of appliances or furniture, rent payments, or utility deposits will be able to apply to these approved aid organizations beginning in early October 2007.
In a briefing in New Orleans today, Raymond A. Jetson, chief executive officer of the Recovery Corps, outlined how his organization will allocate most of the $10 million in funding that the Louisiana Legislature approved recently for distribution to hurricane-affected families and individuals through June 30, 2008.
“The exact time of 9:38 a.m. CDT on Aug. 29 is significant and symbolic for making additional recovery funding available in that the first levee break occurred in New Orleans at that time on Aug. 29, 2005, no thanks to Hurricane Katrina,” Jetson explained. “Still two years later, more than 40,000 Louisiana households that were displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are living in FEMA trailers throughout the state. About 10,000 of these households are still living in trailer communities where conditions are deteriorating and levels of mental and emotional anxiety are increasing. According to our recent report, more than 71,000 households were displaced to other states. Many of them want to come home, but need some support to make that happen. For many hurricane survivors, the recovery process has yet to begin.”
The Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, a non-profit 501c3 organization that is based in Baton Rouge, La., was formed in October 2006 in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Through contractual arrangements with case management organizations and other non-profit organizations, the Recovery Corps has assisted more that 25,000 hurricane-affected households with recovery planning, housing, children’s services and emotional well-being needs since January 2006.
Jetson said that approximately $5 million will be allocated for disaster-affected families in need of one-time household establishment assistance and $2.3 million more will be allocated for household establishment assistance for those still living in FEMA trailers and want to move into other housing in the state. The Recovery Corps will also invest about $1 million in the Recovery Corps’ NOLA Bound Call Center to assist displaced hurricane survivors who still reside outside of Louisiana but want to come back to live and work. NOLA Bound family liaisons provide survivors with recovery information and planning assistance. Family liaisons also provide real-time information on available housing in New Orleans. The call center has a team of community liaisons that scour the city for available housing and then send their findings to the call center.
“Red tape, excuses and blame don’t matter much to people who want to work, have a real home, or put their kids in school. More disasters will strike, and we have an opportunity to create a superior model for disaster management and recovery response from the lessons that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are teaching us,” Jetson commented. “We need a game plan for human recovery for survivors of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and other disasters of similar magnitude. We can all do more collectively as a nation and as concerned citizens to deliver what’s needed to assist survivors of these tragic hurricanes to re-establish a household and get back to the business of a life that could be better than it was before.”
Jetson is advocating the development of a cohesive partnership among local, state and federal government agencies, non-governmental organizations, private industry and the survivors of disaster themselves. He recommends that the partnership’s charter focus on eliminating bureaucracy and blame while also addressing the complex issues of human recovery -- real-time, near-term and far into the future.
Request for Proposal Details
Proposal submission is open to non-profit organizations, including community- and faith-based organizations; for-profit entities; quasi-governmental entities; and parish and local government entities. Organizations that are applying should have a demonstrated and recent history of administering vouchers or third party payments to individuals and the capacity and experience to deliver quality programming and fiscal accountability, among other requirements.
Organizations will be authorized to serve Louisiana residents that have an income at or below 300 percent of the U.S. federal poverty level and that were original residents or current residents of the disaster-impacted Louisiana parishes of Acadia, Allen, Assumption, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, Sabine, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Mary, St. Martin, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Vermilion, Vernon and Washington.
For a detailed breakdown of qualifications, rules and procedures of the requests for proposals or for more information on the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, please visit www.recoverycorps.org.
