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The Louisiana agency responsible for devising a
plan that sets forth how the state intends to use federal funds
earmarked for Gulf Coast rebuilding has issued a proposal that
inadequately addresses the needs of low-income residents, including many
immigrants.
Via HR 2863, Congress allocated $6.2 billion
to the state of Louisiana through the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban
Development's (HUD's) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.
These funds, along with an additional $4.2 billion requested by
President George Bush, are subject to HUD approval of an action plan
describing how they will be used. Accordingly, the Louisiana Recovery
Authority, which has been charged by the governor of Louisiana and the
legislature with developing the plan, issued "The Road Home Housing
Programs: Action Plan for the Use of Disaster Recovery Funds" on Apr. 5,
2006.
By the authority's own admission, the plan
falls far short of meeting the needs of low-income renters who suffered
hurricane-related losses, including many of the hundreds of thousands of
Asian and Latin American immigrants and refugees living in Louisiana at
the time of the storms. It proposes to spend $6.3 billion (61 percent)
of the full $10.4 billion of CDBG supplemental funding directly on
homeowner programs, while allocating only $1.5 billion (15 percent) to
affordable housing/rental programs. Moreover, the plan threatens to
effectively exclude many immigrant homeowners living in Louisiana,
including lawfully present immigrants who have lived in the state for
many years. In order to be eligible for homeowner assistance under the
proposed plan, an owner must have registered with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) for its Individual Assistance program and the
home must have been categorized by FEMA as having been "destroyed" or
having suffered "major" damage.
Unlike federal CDBG funds, FEMA Individual
Assistance is by law available only to "qualified" immigrants, a
restrictive category that excludes many lawfully present immigrants.
Many immigrants and citizens alike have not been able to obtain FEMA
Individual Assistance because they were unaware of existing programs
and/or deadlines. Press reports in the weeks following Hurricane
Katrina indicated that literally thousands of Vietnamese and Hondurans
bypassed officially sanctioned shelters in favor of temporary refuges
such as the Hong Kong City Mall on Bellaire, where Vietnamese hurricane
survivors received free food and shelter from fellow Vietnamese. Other
immigrants and citizens with limited English proficiency were unable to
fill out the requisite application forms due to the lack of translators
at Red Cross shelters and call centers. Still others refrained from
applying for FEMA Individual Assistance for fear that receipt of
assistance would render them public charges and thus jeopardize their
ability to adjust their immigration status in the future. All such
individuals appear to be ineligible for homeowner assistance under the
proposed plan.
Homeowner assistance should be available to
any homeowner whose home suffered major damage, regardless of his or her
particular immigration status. Although the new housing recovery plan
specifies that homeowners who believe they have suffered "major or
severe damage, but have not qualified for FEMA assistance[,] will be
able to appeal their eligibility," the manner in which this provision
will be applied in practice is unclear. Moreover, immigrant homeowners
should have options other than a process by which to pursue appeals.
While FEMA registration should be one criterion for screening
applicants, the plan should delineate alternative mechanisms by which
applicants may demonstrate that their homes suffered major damage.
The National Low-Income Housing Coalition,
which comprises a broad spectrum of local and national organizations
dedicated to protecting the rights of low-income people, submitted
detailed comments on the plan, comments to which the National
Immigration Law Center was a signatory. The comments addressed a
variety of issues, including the inappropriateness of making FEMA the
impromptu gatekeeper of program assistance, and requested an extension
of the ten-day public comment period, which did not provide ample
opportunity for meaningful input. The comments also noted that
community hearings, which were held on Apr. 11, 2006, offered no formal
opportunity for dialogue or discussion and did not adequately provide
for local residents with limited English fluency or limited literacy to
participate in the process.
Immigrants' rights groups such as NILC and
national organizations representing the Vietnamese and Asian American
and Pacific Islander communities submitted separate comments elaborating
on the potential impact of the plan on immigrants and refugees in
Louisiana. After considering the comments received, the Louisiana
Recovery Authority will prepare a final proposed action plan, which will
be submitted to HUD for review and approval.
The text of
the plan is available, in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, at
www.doa.louisiana.gov/cdbg/DRHousing.htm. Comments that NILC
submitted about the plan to the Louisiana Recovery Authority are
available at
www.nilc.org/disaster_assistance/nilccomments_LArecoveryactionplan_2006-4-17.pdf.
By
Melissa Crow, Gulf Coast
policy attorney
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