Myhairygrundle
08-30-2006, 09:30 AM
I have never expected the government to provide me with housing.
I know people are sick of us in Houston bitching about these Katrina folks, but I really wish they would go home. If they put half the effort into finding a job as they do about bitching and whining....
FEMA sued over housing-aid denials
Trying to stop evictions, ACORN says the letters to evacuees are hard to understand
By MIKE SNYDER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Advocates for hurricane evacuees turned again to the courts Tuesday in an effort to compel federal officials to explain their reasons for denying housing assistance.
On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall near New Orleans, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency in federal court in Washington, D.C.
It is at least the fourth lawsuit criticizing FEMA's administration of housing assistance for evacuees.
The ACORN lawsuit focuses on the wording of letters FEMA sends to inform evacuees that they are ineligible for aid. Rather than explaining the reason for the denial in layman's terms, the letters typically include a code used by the agency's computer system and refer evacuees to a brochure or a Web site to decipher the code. Even these explanations often are unclear or confusing, evacuees and their lawyers said, making it difficult for people to correct the problems that led to the denial or to appeal the decision.
About 2,700 Houston evacuees, and perhaps hundreds more around the country, will lose their housing assistance on Thursday.
"Two days from now, I won't have anyplace to live," said Audrey Taylor, 61, an evacuee from New Orleans. A city housing voucher has paid rent and utilities for her west Houston apartment.
Taylor showed reporters a letter from FEMA saying she was ineligible for more assistance because of "IDUPA — duplicate application."
FEMA representatives have never explained what this means, Taylor said.
Donnette Patterson, 23, said she received a letter from city officials this week saying FEMA had decided she qualified for more assistance. But when she called the federal agency, Patterson said, she was told its computer system still showed her as ineligible.
Such inconsistencies are common, lawyers for the plaintiffs said. Mayor Bill White and others working to help evacuees have complained for months that FEMA should simplify its notification procedures.
While notification has been an issue in other lawsuits against FEMA, the ACORN lawsuit uses a different legal strategy based in part on the Fifth Amendment's due process clause, said Michael Kirkpatrick, one of the attorneys who filed the suit.
The plaintiffs will ask a judge this week to order FEMA to continue providing housing assistance until it improves its notification procedures, Kirkpatrick said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4150600.html
I know people are sick of us in Houston bitching about these Katrina folks, but I really wish they would go home. If they put half the effort into finding a job as they do about bitching and whining....
FEMA sued over housing-aid denials
Trying to stop evictions, ACORN says the letters to evacuees are hard to understand
By MIKE SNYDER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Advocates for hurricane evacuees turned again to the courts Tuesday in an effort to compel federal officials to explain their reasons for denying housing assistance.
On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall near New Orleans, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency in federal court in Washington, D.C.
It is at least the fourth lawsuit criticizing FEMA's administration of housing assistance for evacuees.
The ACORN lawsuit focuses on the wording of letters FEMA sends to inform evacuees that they are ineligible for aid. Rather than explaining the reason for the denial in layman's terms, the letters typically include a code used by the agency's computer system and refer evacuees to a brochure or a Web site to decipher the code. Even these explanations often are unclear or confusing, evacuees and their lawyers said, making it difficult for people to correct the problems that led to the denial or to appeal the decision.
About 2,700 Houston evacuees, and perhaps hundreds more around the country, will lose their housing assistance on Thursday.
"Two days from now, I won't have anyplace to live," said Audrey Taylor, 61, an evacuee from New Orleans. A city housing voucher has paid rent and utilities for her west Houston apartment.
Taylor showed reporters a letter from FEMA saying she was ineligible for more assistance because of "IDUPA — duplicate application."
FEMA representatives have never explained what this means, Taylor said.
Donnette Patterson, 23, said she received a letter from city officials this week saying FEMA had decided she qualified for more assistance. But when she called the federal agency, Patterson said, she was told its computer system still showed her as ineligible.
Such inconsistencies are common, lawyers for the plaintiffs said. Mayor Bill White and others working to help evacuees have complained for months that FEMA should simplify its notification procedures.
While notification has been an issue in other lawsuits against FEMA, the ACORN lawsuit uses a different legal strategy based in part on the Fifth Amendment's due process clause, said Michael Kirkpatrick, one of the attorneys who filed the suit.
The plaintiffs will ask a judge this week to order FEMA to continue providing housing assistance until it improves its notification procedures, Kirkpatrick said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4150600.html