Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT) is urging residents to send an email asking four Congressmen to make sure that a fair investigation of the Louisiana Road Home Program begins promptly.

A complaint about the Road Home Program was accepted for investigation by the Office of the HUD Inspector General. The 39-page complaint was co-signed by leaders of the all-volunteer Citizens’ Road Home Action Team, Loyola Law Clinic in New Orleans, and Terrebonne Readiness and Assistance Coalition in Houma. The complaint is about serious problems in the Road Home Program. These problems resulted in thousands of applicants not getting fair grants for rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina or Rita seriously damaged or destroyed their homes.

Melanie Ehrlich, founder of CHAT, has been asked to testify in DC about the Road Home on May 20. Please send your email before then, if possible.

Send the email to chatlra@yahoo.com and CHAT will fax these emails to Sens. Vitter and Lieberman and Rep. Olver and hand deliver them to a HUD representative and Sen. Landrieu on May 20.

CHAT recommends you write your email like this:

Dear Sens. Landrieu, Vitter, and Lieberman and Rep. Olver,

Use your own words to urge that the HUD OIG conduct a fair investigation of the Louisiana Road Home Program without delays. Please tell why this is important. Give a personal example if you like.

Yours truly,

YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS

More Explanation:

As the Program nears its end, we are very concerned that the remaining money for the Program is not being spent to correct extraordinarily frequent mistakes made by the Program that led to grant short-changing.

• Many applicants cannot repair or rebuild their homes without fair grants.
• There should be accountability for the extremely high uncorrected error rate of the Road Home Program.

A HUD inspector was supposed to start the investigation on Apr. 2 by meeting with Melanie Ehrlich, the Co-Chairman of Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT). Suddenly, the meeting was cancelled and she was told that the investigation would be postponed for 6 months.

The longer the investigation is delayed, the less chance that the government will take responsibility:

• for the extraordinary neglect that many thousands of applicants have faced during grant processing
• and for the violation of HUD rules and Road Home Program rules, which has hurt so many applicants.

If you have a fax machine available, please fax your letter yourself, and send an email to chatlra@yahoo.com telling us that you did so.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Fax:(202) 224-9735

Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana
Fax: (202) 228-5061

Rep. John W. Olver, Chair, Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Fax: 202-226-1224

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Chair, Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security Committee
Fax:(202) 224-9750 Fax

For more information about the HUD OIG complaint and for updates about the Road Home Program, elevation grants, follow-up of building by LRA, and other Road Home matters from the applicants’ viewpoint, please see CHAT's website: www.chatushome.com or r send an email to receive our free weekly e-newsletter.

• write “join CHAT” in the subject
• give your name and city in the body of the email
• send to chatlra@yahoo.com