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The Road Home Myth Busters - Top Myths Explained

Myths

ICF International was selected over Louisiana companies.
ICF is staffed by out-of-staters.
The Road Home program distributes checks for $150,000.
The contractor establishes The Road Home program policies and procedures.
The Road Home program is a "letter writing" and check drafting operation.
The Road Home and/or the State of Louisiana are holding large sums of federal dollars that are drawing interest.
The contractor, ICF International, is making huge profits from The Road Home program.
As an out-of-state company, ICF is not committed to the State of Louisiana. When they finish The Road Home program, they will leave.
The Road Home program is able to make the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "whole".
The Road Home program is providing loans that must be repaid.
The Road Home program does not trust the homeowners of Louisiana.
Most of the homeowners who go through The Road Home program are unhappy with the way they are treated.
The pre-storm values of homes are consistently underestimated.
I'll get what my neighbor got (or didn't get).
This is a loan.
I can only hire contractors that The Road Home says are okay.

MYTH: ICF International was selected over Louisiana companies.: FACT: Of the seven firms who bid, only one was from Louisiana, and it was a small firm that was deemed not qualified to move further in the process. All of the qualified prime bidders were from states other than Louisiana. Nevertheless, the ICF team does include a number of leading Louisiana firms: Deltha Corporation, First American Title Insurance Company of Louisiana, Franklin Industries, Jones Walker, Network Technology Group, Peter A. Mayer Advertising, Providence Engineering & Environmental Group, and Shaw Environmental. Additional Louisiana firms will be added to the team as the program evolves.

MYTH: ICF is staffed by out-of-staters.: FACT: Eighty-four percent of ICF staff members are Louisianians (Seventy percent were victims) and goal is for 99+% of Road Home program employees to be Louisianians.

MYTH: The Road Home program distributes checks for $150,000.: FACT: The funding received from Congress does not allow each homeowner to receive a total of $150,000. The average grant based on initial calculations is between $70,000 and $80,000. Funds are sent to lending institutions on behalf of homeowners. ICF never handles any Road Home grant money.

Eligible homeowners affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita may receive up to $150,000 in compensation for their losses to get back into their homes. The exact amount of funding that homeowners are eligible for is determined by a number of factors, including the level of damage to their homes, any FEMA assistance that has been received and insurance settlements that have been provided.

MYTH: The contractor establishes The Road Home program policies and procedures.: FACT: ICF was charged with implementing The Road Home program. ICF provides input and works with the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) and Louisiana Office of Community Development to develop policies and procedures in accordance with state and federal guidelines.

MYTH: The Road Home program is a "letter writing" and check drafting operation.: FACT: The Road Home program is a comprehensive program that compassionately compensates Louisiana citizens for their losses through a process that is transparent, ensures fairness and respects the recipients. To accomplish this, major tasks included establishing state-wide housing centers with fully-trained personnel in record time, linking dozens of databases in a massive Management Information System accessible to more than one thousand employees, developing a seven-day-a-week call center operation that has logged more than a quarter of a million calls, developing extensive public outreach and education functions, and providing counseling and assistance to a variety of communities throughout the entire process.

MYTH: The Road Home and/or the State of Louisiana are holding large sums of federal dollars that are drawing interest.: FACT: The Road Home grant funds are held by the federal government until needed for closings. Upon each scheduled closing, the title company informs the state Office of Community Development which requests, through HUD, that the funds be sent directly from the US Treasury to a banking institution for deposit in a homeowner's account. At no time do funds accumulate interest in either a state or ICF account.

MYTH: The contractor, ICF International, is making huge profits from The Road Home program.: FACT: This huge, complex program is being administered for approximately seven cents on the dollar. This is less than most private non-profits require as overhead for allocating and distributing donations. ICF went through a competitive procurement process and detailed negotiations with the state to ensure that rates are competitive and comparable with the management of other large government programs. ICF is paid only as work is completed under the program. Under the time and material contract, ICF is only paid for the actual work performed.

MYTH: As an out-of-state company, ICF is not committed to the State of Louisiana. When they finish The Road Home program, they will leave.: FACT: ICF is making a significant investment in Louisiana and wishes to continue to grow here by serving citizens of the state and by expanding its Baton Rouge headquarters to serve as a hub for ICF business throughout the gulf region. For example, when ICF's subcontractor West decided to move its call center operations to another state, ICF immediately hired the approximately one hundred employees serving The Road Home program. This not only preserved those jobs within the state but helped ICF advance its plan to develop permanent infrastructure within the state for the long-term.

MYTH: The Road Home program is able to make the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "whole.": FACT: The Road Home program is the most massive long-term recovery program ever undertaken by any state at any time in American history. It is also unprecedented in terms of the effort by government to provide assistance to individual homeowners for home repair. While there are billions of dollars involved, the total funding available is clearly not sufficient to return every home to pre-storm conditions. Limited funding must be distributed in a way to help meet the needs of as many victims as possible.

MYTH: The Road Home program is providing loans that must be repaid.: FACT: Funding is in the form of Compensation Grants and additional assistance that is not repaid as long as homeowners meet their responsibilities.
: However, the Small Rental Property program does grant incentive loans that are forgiven over time – provided the property owner complies with program guidelines.

MYTH: The Road Home program does not trust the homeowners of Louisiana.: FACT: The state of Louisiana was able to obtain a large amount of money from the federal government in order to support the return of its citizens to their communities. The state has an obligation to be a good steward of these funds and to ensure that those who benefit from the funds are eligible Louisianians. News reports from Mississippi indicate that Louisiana's neighboring state is experiencing a rate of more than 15% in fraud in its housing program. To protect homeowners from fraud, policies and procedures have been adopted to minimize fraud, maximize the amount of funds available to assist truly eligible Louisianians and encourage reinvestment in the state.

MYTH: Most of the homeowners who go through The Road Home program are unhappy with the way they are treated.: FACT: Quite the opposite. The Road Home program carefully monitors all those who go through the program and evaluates levels of satisfaction. To date more than 93% indicate they are very satisfied with the program and how they are treated. A key priority of every Road Home employee is to make each applicant is as comfortable as possible and to treat them with dignity and respect. In any large program, those few who are unhappy may speak the loudest, but survey results reveal an overwhelming number of positive responses. The countless letters and comments that The Road Home program receives attests to the care and quality of the operations of the program.

MYTH: The pre-storm values of homes are consistently underestimated.: FACT: To determine the value of a home more than a year ago, prior to its damage by Hurricane Katrina or Rita, is a tough challenge. The best possible source of such an evaluation is a pre-storm appraisal performed by a licensed and certified Louisiana appraiser. The Road Home program is now using pre-storm appraisals provided by the homeowner-applicants, the repositories of federal mortgage servicers and the archives of Louisiana appraisal firms. Homeowners may also provide to the program a post-storm created appraisal from a licensed and certified Louisiana appraiser setting out the property's pre-storm value. In the absence of such documentation, Louisiana licensed REALTORs working for The Road Home will evaluate property much as they would when preparing to sell a property. Tax assessments and other public records will be reviewed, and the condition of the property and its unique characteristics will be taken into consideration. The values of three comparable properties in the neighborhood will be reviewed, and the resulting valuation will be presented in a Broker's Price Opinion (BPO).

MYTH: I'll get what my neighbor got (or didn't get).: FACT: There are several factors that determine eligibility and the amount of funding that a homeowner may receive. These factors include the amount of damage sustained to the home, the amount of FEMA funds that have been received, and any insurance settlements that have been awarded. Each homeowner's situation is different, and it is inaccurate to make comparisons based on what a neighbor has received.

MYTH: This is a loan.: FACT: There are two types of funding for which homeowners may be eligible. Compensation grants from The Road Home do not need to be repaid provided the conditions of the covenant are met. Additional Compensation Grants (formerly called “Affordable Compensation Loans”) are available to low to moderate income families. Like standard Compensation grants, the Additional Compensation Grants do not need to repaid if all of the conditions of the covenant are upheld. At closing, a homeowner is required to sign a covenant and grant agreement that states he or she will establish occupancy within the next three years, will only use the property as their primary residence for three years from the date of closing, will comply with applicable building codes, or if applicable, the Manufactured Housing Code, will maintain homeowner’s hazard insurance on the home from the date of occupancy until three years after the closing date and will maintain flood insurance (if the property is located in the Special Flood Hazard Area) from the date of closing to the extent that coverage can be obtained under the National Flood Insurance Program.

MYTH: I can only hire contractors that The Road Home says are okay.: FACT: Homeowners may use any contractor they wish. The Road Home does not mandate that homeowners choose a particular contractor, but encourages all homeowners to ensure that their contractors are licensed, insured and bonded. Owners can also choose to repair their homes themselves, but they should be aware that their homes must comply with building code requirements.