LA FLOOD ASSISTANCE - For people in Louisiana who were affected by the 2016 Floods, there was hope offered in the form of recovery grants to assist with repairing or replacing their homes. But due to a series of events, thousands of people have yet to receive the funds. To repair their homes, many affected homeowners took out a Small Business Administration loan, expecting a recovery grant to help pay for the loan…but there was a problem called a “duplication of benefits policy” that blocked more than 6,000 Louisiana homeowners from getting recovery grants from the state. In October, Congress passed a law fixing the penalty but even though it was fixed, homeowners
haven’t received the money. What’s happening is the Louisiana's Office of Community Development which handles the grants is waiting on guidance from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Guidance was originally expected around March, but it’s been pushed back; another delay in a recovery effort that has been criticized as being too slow. Pat Forbes, Executive Director of Louisiana's Office of Community Development , shared his observations on all this with Baton Rouge Public Radio WRKF-
"It's impossible to say for sure but our expectation is that every day that the government was shut down and the HUD folks were not at work, is a day's delay in our receiving the guidance," explained Forbes."They (HUD) were originally expecting to give us the guidance before the end of the first quarter, I can only assume that's going to be pushed back a month or so and of course we have the possibility of another shutdown coming in a couple of weeks."
As to when funds for flooded homeowners might be available, Forbes assured that his office will respond as soon as possible.
