MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Extension or not, meaningful changes must be adopted
By Dr. Monteic A. Sizer
President and CEO
Louisiana Family Recovery Corps

As the state of Louisiana, our Congressional delegation, Louisiana’s non-profit sector, and others continue to lobby hard for an extension of the Disaster Housing Assistance Program (DHAP), the window of hope continues to diminish for thousands of Louisiana families who face homelessness should the program close as scheduled on February 28, 2009.

On Thursday, February 5, Senator Mary Landrieu hosted an urgent meeting with FEMA and HUD officials seeking a one-year extension of the deadline. Senator Landrieu’s efforts in this looming crisis have been remarkable, as has all of her work associated with seeking federal recovery assistance for Louisiana.

The mere fact that Senator Landrieu and others have to go to bat to extend this program represents an innate failure within the program’s design. There are approximately 30,000 families across the country whose housing is subsidized by the DHAP-Katrina program. A similar number was quoted by HUD officials in October 2008. Clearly, DHAP’s model is not transitioning people toward self-sufficiency and out of the program.

This lack of outcome-oriented programming is not new to federal disaster recovery efforts. We have seen numerous botched federal human recovery programs since 2005. Katrina Aid Today, a federal case management program, was left in limbo with nearly 2,000 families searching for assistance in 2008. The state of Louisiana, recognizing this crisis, asked the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps to help FEMA and the state manage the families to closure. It was implied that upon the closing of Katrina Aid Today, those families, along with a larger population of storm-impacted Louisianians, would transition into the Disaster Case Management Pilot (DCMP) Phase II program, but that program never materialized. The Recovery Corps did manage to work on behalf of these families for the state and FEMA, but there were still families left to be served. To date, neither the Recovery Corps nor its non-profit partners have been paid for the time, money, and resources spent in ramping up the DCMP Phase II program.

Tragically, those served by Katrina Aid Today and identified as closed cases were not necessarily provided with better household situations because the model was not outcome-based. Simply, some cases were closed based on a referral to state agencies or long-term recovery committees. In many instances, these became known as “referrals to nowhere.”

Since Katrina Aid Today closed, no federal dollars exclusively allocated for case management have been provided to the state, despite the Recovery Corps’ design of meaningful outcome-based programs at the state’s and FEMA’s request. These programs combined direct services that disaster-affected residents indicated they needed most with case management that impacted people. However, this model has yet to be integrated, as FEMA and the state ultimately decided to utilize Mississippi’s modified version of the Katrina Aid Today case management model, a model that had already proven not to be comprehensive enough to meet the needs of Louisiana’s families. This program ultimately never got off the ground and Louisiana’s citizens may miss out on $32 million for case management purposes.

There were correlated problems with the Louisiana Cottages program, a housing program designed to bring temporary housing online in Louisiana for those transitioning out of FEMA trailers. That housing stock could have certainly filled a great need today.

Now is the time to learn from previous missteps. Our state must become innovative and effective in finding solutions, both for the short-term and the long-term.

The Recovery Corps helped to alert the state and the nation of this looming DHAP-Katrina deadline and to the potential negative consequences. We implore the state, HUD, and FEMA to work out an extension that will keep Louisiana families housed instead of homeless. However, any extension must come with outcome-related accountabilities to ensure people are able to successfully transition out of the program and into more sustainable housing options. Specific benchmarks must be clearly stated, and those assuming taxpayers money must be held accountable for the outcomes.

However, should HUD and FEMA deny yet another request to extend the program, which they have already done twice, short-term solutions are quickly needed.

Admittedly there are very few short-term answers due to the timing of the deadline. Lack of foresight and planning for this very scenario have placed the state with most, if not all, of its eggs in one basket. Thus, there is the very real potential that more than 10,000 families (not people, families) of the nearly 17,000 Louisiana families depending on DHAP-Katrina benefits will face extreme hardship come March 1, 2009. This is not including the Louisianians declared ineligible and not included in any FEMA-funded programs. The size of that population is unknown, as these families and individuals are not currently tracked by the state or federal government.

While it would take a great deal of scrambling and cooperation among many parties, there are some short-term strategies that the state, the federal government, the non-profits, and the private sector could examine. One such strategy would include utilizing existing unspent Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds controlled by the state. Any strings or restrictions that are counter productive to what impacted people need should be loosened.

Additionally, it is essential to work with the Louisiana Realtors Association or similar statewide groups in order to identify currently-available rental stock for DHAP-Katrina clients to immediately access.

There are other short-term recommendations, and the Louisiana non-profit sector has done a great job voicing some of those to the state and federal governments. Ultimately, though, long-term fixes must be made to the program for the sake of DHAP-Katrina clients should the program be extended and for the sake of those Louisianians impacted by Gustav and Ike who are in a similar version of the DHAP program (DHAP-Ike). Without these long-term fixes, DHAP-Ike clients are likely to experience similar fates as their DHAP-Katrina counterparts.

One long-term solution is to incorporate a more effective case management model within the DHAP program, one that includes direct services with case management. This model should include personal responsibility by the client, employment assessment and referrals, resources for direct services (including assistance with home repairs, utility and rent payments, and household furnishings and appliances), outcome-based systems that effectively deliver needed human services to disaster-impacted people, and a reporting system that ultimately leads to self-sufficiency.

Second, the state must continue its ongoing efforts to increase rental housing stock and affordable housing options in Louisiana. This has long been a major issue, as in 2007 the Recovery Corps commissioned a report by The Urban Institute which identified the lack of affordable and available housing stock as a key barrier to recovery in Louisiana. That problem still exists years later.

Other recommendations include tenant protection such as rent stabilization and eviction protections, adding source of income as a protected class relative to housing discrimination, updating and adjusting zoning codes, and creating additional tax credits and other incentives for private individuals and organizations to build additional housing stock.

The coming days will be very crucial for Louisiana’s recovery efforts. Putting thousands of families on the streets is a black eye neither the state nor the new Obama Administration can afford. Similarly, the state and federal governments cannot continue to place some of the state’s most vulnerable residents into substandard recovery programs doomed to fail, as too many organizations in Louisiana have proven to have the scale, scope, and capacity to provide effective, efficient, outcome-based programs that help our citizens move toward self-sufficiency. To continue with programs that are proven failures is unacceptable.

Louisiana citizens deserve transparency, outcome-based funding, and smart programmatic execution now more than ever. The future of our state depends on it.

Dr. Monteic A. Sizer is President and CEO of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps. For more information about the Recovery Corps, visit www.recoverycorps.org.