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<DIV>Dear Concerned Citizens,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>From Citizens' Road Home Action Team (CHAT)</DIV>
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<DIV> <STRONG><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color=#660000 size=3>CHAT Road Home Action Item</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#660000 size=3><FONT color=#000000><STRONG><FONT size=2>Please send an email to chatlra@yahoo.com insisting that there be no more delays in a fair investigation of the Road Home Program by the HUD Office of the Inspector General. </FONT></STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#660000 size=3><FONT color=#000000><STRONG><FONT size=2>CHAT will fax these emails to Sens. Vitter and Lieberman and Rep. Olver and hand deliver them to a HUD official and Sen. Landrieu on May 20. </FONT></STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT color=#660000 size=3><FONT color=#000000><STRONG><FONT size=2></FONT></STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=3><STRONG><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" color=#bf005f size=2>This is one of the last opportunities to have the program meaningfully examined before they spend all the money, which mostly comes from HUD.</FONT></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR></FONT><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">CHAT recommends you write your email like this:<BR></FONT></STRONG><BR>Dear Sens. Landrieu, Vitter, and Lieberman and Rep. Olver, <BR><BR><EM>Use your own words to urge that the HUD OIG conduct a fair investigation of the Louisiana Road Home Program without delays. Please tell why this is important. Give a personal example if you like.</EM> <BR><BR>Yours truly,<BR><BR>YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS </FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT color=#660000 size=3><FONT color=#000000></FONT></FONT>
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<DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color=#660000>Explanation:</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1>A <STRONG>complaint about the Road Home Program</STRONG> was accepted for investigation by the Office of the HUD Inspector General. The 39-page complaint was co-signed by leaders of the all-volunteer Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT), Loyola Law Clinic in New Orleans, and Terrebonne Readiness and Assistance Coalition in Houma. The complaint is about <STRONG>serious problems in the Road Home Program which resulted in many applicants not getting fair grants for rebuilding </STRONG>after Hurricane Katrina or Rita seriously damaged or destroyed their homes. <BR><BR><STRONG>Melanie Ehrlich, founder of CHAT, has been asked by Sen. Landrieu's staff to testify in DC about the Road Home Program on May 20.</STRONG> Sen. Landrieu chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Disaster Recovery Subcommittee.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1><STRONG>CHAT is urging residents to send an email BEFORE MAY 20 to make sure that a fair investigation of the Louisiana Road Home Program begins promptly.</STRONG> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1>You can send this email to </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1><SPAN class=yshortcuts id=lw_1242321802_0 style="CURSOR: hand; BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed"><A href="mailto:chatlra@yahoo.com">chatlra@yahoo.com</A></SPAN> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1>and CHAT will fax these emails to Sens. Vitter and Lieberman and Rep. Olver and hand deliver them to a HUD representative and Sen. Landrieu on May 20. <BR><BR></FONT><BR><STRONG style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">More Explanation:</STRONG> <BR><BR>As the Program nears its end, we are very concerned that the remaining money for the Program is not being spent to correct extraordinarily frequent mistakes made by the Program that led to grant short-changing. </DIV>
<DIV class=link-desc style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">
<UL style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">
<LI style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">Many applicants cannot repair or rebuild their homes without fair grants.
<LI style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">There should be accountability for the extremely high uncorrected error rate of the Road Home Program. </LI></UL></DIV>
<DIV>A HUD inspector was supposed to start the investigation on Apr. 2 by meeting with Melanie Ehrlich, the Co-Chairman of Citizens’ Road Home Action Team (CHAT). Suddenly, the meeting was cancelled and she was told that the investigation would be postponed for 6 months. </DIV>
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<DIV>While there have been HUD investigations of the Road Home Program, they have all been about overpayments to applicants. None have looked at the much more serious and frequent problem of underpayments. The complaint that HUD has accepted for investigation but is delaying starting is about underpayments.<BR><BR>The longer the investigation is delayed, the less chance that the government will take responsibility: </DIV>
<UL style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">
<LI style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">for the extraordinary neglect that many thousands of applicants have faced during grant processing
<LI style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">and for the violation of HUD rules and Road Home Program rules, which has hurt so many applicants. </LI></UL>
<DIV>If you have a fax machine available, please fax your letter yourself, and send an email to chatlra@yahoo.com telling us that you did so. <BR><BR>Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana<BR>Fax:(202) 224-9735 <BR><BR>Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana <BR>Fax: (202) 228-5061 <BR><BR>Rep. John W. Olver, Chair, Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies <BR>Fax: 202-226-1224 <BR><BR>Sen. Joe Lieberman, Chair, Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security Committee <BR>Fax:(202) 224-9750 </DIV>
<DIV><BR>For more information about the HUD OIG complaint and for updates about the Road Home Program, elevation grants, follow-up of building by LRA, and other Road Home matters from the applicants’ viewpoint, please see CHAT's website: <A style="FONT-SIZE: 13px" href="http://chatushome.com/">www.chatushome.com</A> or r send an email to receive our free weekly e-newsletter.
<UL style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">
<LI style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">write “join CHAT” in the subject
<LI style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">give your name and city in the body of the email
<LI style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">send to <A href="mailto:chatlra@yahoo.com">chatlra@yahoo.com</A> </LI></UL></DIV>
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<DIV>Thank you in advance,</DIV>
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<DIV>Melanie Ehrlich</DIV>
<DIV>Founder, Citizens' Road Home Action Team (CHAT); <A href="http://chatushome.com">http://chatushome.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV>Member, LRA Housing Task Force</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>PS This text is mostly taken from LouisianaREBUILDS.info, which kindly posted it in their e-newsletter yesterday at the following link:</DIV>
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<DIV> <A href="http://www.louisianarebuilds.info/node/3369" target=_blank rel=nofollow>Click here for more information about this action item</A></DIV></DIV></td></tr></table>