The Failure of Privatization in New Orleans

[Wayward Episcopalian]

Cross-posted from The Wayward Episcopalian: Nathan on New Orleans. Also cross-posted to MyDD and Daily Kos.

This morning in my “Making of American Public Policy” course, we discussed bureaucracy and privatization. The professor spoke at length about Walter Reed army hospital and the chronic lack of accountability it suffered after privatization. It got me thinking about Louisiana’s Road Home Program, which I wrote about in February. It’s the federally-funded, state-created program for giving rebuilding grants to homeowners. Most of the actual work has been contracted out to a private company, ICF International. The program kicked off full-time in October, and has been a dismal failure so far.

Here’s how ICF International is doing as of May 21, per the official Road Home website:

Applications Received: 138,557

Number of Grants Calculated: 79, 290

Number of Grants Paid Out So Far: 19, 882

Average Grant Amount: $75,426

In other words, a majority of homeowners have now been told how much money to expect to get, but only 14.35% have actually seen a dime. What’s more, that $75,426 average amount is only half of what many homeowners were led to believe they were eligible for. At least the numbers are better than they were in February, when only 712 homeowners had been paid, out of 103,710 (although the average grant has declined $4,000 in that time). Remember, the storm happened 21 months ago, and the program started 7 months ago. KPLC-Lake Charles reports, “Frank Trapani of the New Orleans Realtors Association describes the Road Home program as the state's second disaster.”

Why such dismal performance? There could be any number of reasons, but a lack of accountability is a big one. Governor Blanco met with the ICF executives to yell and scream about her displeasure, but she hasn’t actually fired them or docked their pay. ICF International has also begun running a smaller state recovery program for renters, a program the legislature was worried about. As the Times Picayune reported, “Nervous state officials are essentially locked into the current arrangement, with no performance measures and no penalties to hold over ICF's head.”

If the state government can’t do its job, we need Congress to step up and do theirs. They should require the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which funds Road Home, exercise more oversight. The program is also suffering from a $3 billion shortfall. Please write your Senators and Congressman, as well as the relevant committees, and tell them you care about this issue; demand they pass legislation allocating that $3 billion and requiring HUD to exercise more oversight. The relevant committees are the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairsand the House Committee on Financial Services.

UPDATE: I felt this Daily Kos comment from New Orleans resident nolalilly was worth highlighting. "I don't qualify for Road Home money but so many people have been counting on it for the longest time. I don't know that much about it but I have several friends and aquaintances who have put their lives on hold waiting for what is supposed to be theirs. In the meantime, they continue living in limbo, paying mortages on houses that are either unlivable or bulldosed. I have heard that the average payout would be somewhere between 100K and 150K. So far, what little money has eked out has been sadly lacking... It is an American disgrace."

[Wayward Episcopalian]

1. Another Post Slips Through the Cracks

When even the leftist community ignores a social justice issue, how much hope can you really have?

I believe I've had a grand total of one recommended diary on Daily Kos; it was the one with dozens of Spring Break pictures. Another one or two have been "rescued." I've had a few more recommended on MyDD, but it only takes five or six recs to climb the list there. Now, I don't expect the majority of my diaries to get on the greatest hits list or the rescue threads, but the overall lack of attention paid to this issue, not just by the feds and the press but by the liberal blogs, is shameful. In the last 16 days, there have been only 15 DK diaries tagged "Hurricane Katrina," 3 of which were mine and 5 of which were not about, or were only partially about, Katrina recovery. I specifically gave this diary an anti-conservative name ("The Failure of Privatization") to make it appeal to the Kos and MyDD communities, but to no avail.

Why is it just commonscribe, nightprowlkitty, nolalilly, Kevin, me, maybe a couple others? We'll keep working, but more citizens, especially progressives, need to step up!!! Read, recommend, research, write!!!

I'll make a full blog post/cross-posted diary on this subject within the next month (my last WE post was about how my schedule is about to free up, allowing me to pay more attention to Katrina blogging).