interdictor (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} interdictor) wrote,@ 2007-04-09 01:31:00 |
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Government Strikes Again or I'm From the Government and I'm Here to Help (Myself)
Government Crushing Relief Efforts in New Orleans
College students doing more than government. Typical.
Government Crushing Relief Efforts in New Orleans
As homes in New Orleans' flood-stricken zones inch toward habitability, a bureaucratic storm is brewing between state and federal relief agencies that could derail the city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The dispute over how $7.5 billion in federal aid is handed out is slowing disbursal to more than 120,000 homeowners whose houses were damaged or destroyed by the storm on August 29, 2005 and by subsequent flooding.
Officials from the state of Louisiana contend that a new federal requirement that aid checks be issued jointly to homeowners and their mortgage lenders could mean that money bypasses the owners -- many of whom lost their jobs as a result of Katrina -- and goes straight to paying their defaulted mortgage payments. A federal official said the government, in demanding a change in payout procedures, was relying on lenders to act fairly to New Orleans homeowners. "If banks simply grab this money as a way to compensate for their subprime losses, we would not consider that the moral thing to do," said Bruce Sullivan, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But state officials note that banks are feeling a pinch all over the nation because of a crisis in subprime mortgages and many would be likely to grab the Katrina cash. Meanwhile, Katrina victims grow older and angrier as their woes go unanswered amid endless government bickering.
Barbara Johnson, 79, has all but lost faith that the government will come through with the aid she needs to rebuild her mold-infested home on a nearly deserted block of 1940s bungalows in St. Bernard parish, so she turned to charity. "I am so grateful for the love of these groups that come in, because the city is not doing a 'blah blah' thing," Johnson said as college kids on spring vacation ripped out water-logged debris and piled it roof-high in her front yard.
College students doing more than government. Typical.
