Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Road Home bias alleged
Times Picayune ^ | Thursday, November 13, 2008 | David Hammer

Posted on 11/14/2008 3:34:34 PM PST by BBell

Rules called unfair to black homeowners

Fair-housing advocates and black homeowners in New Orleans filed a federal class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the Louisiana Recovery Authority and U.S. Housing and Urban Development, claiming the Road Home grant calculation formula is discriminatory.

The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and the National Fair Housing Alliance on behalf of five black New Orleans homeowner applicants to the state's recovery grant program.

The plaintiffs seek to represent a class of about 20,000 black families in Orleans Parish who decided to rebuild on their damaged properties and secured Road Home grants to help them do so. If the plaintiffs get their wish, it could rock the $10.3 billion Road Home program and force a recalculation of many of the approximately 110,000 grants paid to applicants who promised to rebuild.

The crux of the complaint is that Road Home grants are calculated in a way that results in smaller compensation awards for black applicants simply because they tend to live in historically segregated neighborhoods with depressed property values.

The LRA, following negotiations with HUD, in 2006 decided to distribute billions of dollars in federal hurricane aid to homeowners based on the lower of two figures -- a home's pre-storm value or the cost of replacing the structure to a minimal standard.

It quickly became clear after the program launched in mid-2006 that in most cases in New Orleans, in part because of rising construction costs, pre-storm values, not replacement costs, would be used to calculate the amount of the grants.

Both values are already verified by the Road Home program, and the plaintiffs say the replacement cost estimate could easily be used instead to calculate the grants in all

(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: katrina; louisiana; neworleans; roadhome
When will it ever end. I think there will be Katrina victims still whining 10 years after the actual storm.
1 posted on 11/14/2008 3:34:34 PM PST by BBell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: BBell

“When will it ever end. I think there will be Katrina victims still whining 10 years after the actual storm.”

I say we buy em all a house and set them up for life and get it over with...make em sign a STFU agreement (sort of a bailout pre-nup) it would be worth every penny.


2 posted on 11/14/2008 3:36:32 PM PST by jessduntno (Barack - Swahili for "High Wind, Big Thunder, No Rain")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jessduntno
...20,000 black families...

There ya' go.

3 posted on 11/14/2008 3:39:11 PM PST by realdifferent1 ("If you saw Atlas,...what would you tell him to do?"... "To shrug.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

At the risk of being branded a racist, I have to ask: have victims of other hurricanes complained as much as the Katrina victims have?


4 posted on 11/14/2008 3:39:43 PM PST by CE2949BB (Fight.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: realdifferent1

“There ya’ go.”

Gotta be a couple of white crackheads...


5 posted on 11/14/2008 3:40:52 PM PST by jessduntno (Barack - Swahili for "High Wind, Big Thunder, No Rain")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: jessduntno
“When will it ever end. I think there will be Katrina victims still whining 10 years after the actual storm.”

Are you kidding? Ten years is just a drop in the bucket. A hundred plus years from now their descendants will be demanding reparations for the injustice of Katrina.

6 posted on 11/14/2008 3:42:51 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: BBell

“”claiming the Road Home grant calculation formula is discriminatory.””

In other news...just like clockwork the sun came up today.


7 posted on 11/14/2008 3:43:02 PM PST by Altura Ct.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CE2949BB

Not all the Katrina victims are complainers. I am one and there are a whole lot of them in Mississippi. It’s just the ones in certain locals who know no life other then the government dole.


8 posted on 11/14/2008 3:52:08 PM PST by BBell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BBell

“.........certain locals who know no life other than the government dole”.
Yep. There’s still a couple hundred thousand of them in Houston, still in apts and section 8 housing paid for by the Feds. They came out in force on Election Day and flipped Harris County Blue.
They are worthless parasites for the most part.


9 posted on 11/14/2008 4:03:13 PM PST by BnBlFlag (Deo Vindice/Semper Fidelis "Ya gotta saddle up your boys; Ya gotta draw a hard line")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: BnBlFlag
A lot of them are coming back and their not going to New Orleans. They are coming to my community. Where I live things are changing and when the housing market goes up I may move. We had a neighborhood meeting for the first time in over 10 years here, complete with cops and councilmen, and it was because of the way things are changing and what we can do about it. Fortunately the police seem to have a hand on it as they don not take any kind of minor crap from these people.

Lots of cars with Texas plates showing up around here and they are not Mexicans looking for work.

BTW section 8 and rentals were brought up repeatedly at our little meeting. After Katrina people were buying up houses thinking they could make good money fixing them up and reselling them. Then the market went down and they could not sell them so they are renting them using the section 8 program to rent them. People around here are not happy. But the bright side is that the police harass the out of line types constantly until they move on or get evicted. The councilmen are also using existing ordinance's to get rid of these types too. One day the NAACP will probably show up and raise hell but until that happens we will keep at it.

10 posted on 11/14/2008 4:25:16 PM PST by BBell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: BBell

Over 100 years from now their ancestors will be asking for reparation. Victimhood needs very little fuel, if only we could turn whining into useable energy.


11 posted on 11/14/2008 4:28:28 PM PST by tiki (True Christians will not deliberately slander or misrepresent others or their beliefs)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red_Devil 232

Every time I make a reply before I read the replies someone has already said it.


12 posted on 11/14/2008 4:29:29 PM PST by tiki (True Christians will not deliberately slander or misrepresent others or their beliefs)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: BBell

Easy credit to unqualified mortgage seekers - of whatever race - is what put the American economy in the tank in the first place, and ushered in the coming Era of Obama. Why is it so difficult for the average American to see the nose on his face?


13 posted on 11/14/2008 6:06:20 PM PST by Jack Hammer (here)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hammer
I don't know what the average American is anymore. Everyone I know seems to understand what precipitated this crisis but bambi and the dims still manged to get elected.
14 posted on 11/14/2008 6:38:27 PM PST by BBell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson