forgotston.com

There seems to be no way for us citizens to monitor and hold Governor Blanco’s Road Home Program accountable. We certainly cannot depend on our public officials.

The website that lists the statistics on grant awards has not been updated since last Monday. Once again, I have contacted Governor Blanco’s Road Home program to request an update and to request that the statistics be updated daily. As slow as they work, updating shouldn’t be too time-consuming.

Governor Blanco set 6,000 closings in the month of March as the goal for the state’s contractor ICF International.

Thus only 1,725 has been scheduled. There is no report on how many actually closed.

Unless the statistics are provided more timely, we will not know whether the goal of 6,000 closings in March has been met until the first Monday in April.

Excuses

Before we hear the excuse that the latest HUD edict (to follow the law) has slowed down the awarding of grants, we should wonder how.

HUD merely said that the homeowners could get their grants in a “lump sum” rather than in installments. Common sense says that awarding money in a one-time lump sum is faster and easier than doling it out in installments.

Transparency and accountability?

ICF is so busy making sure that homeowners don’t steal any money that apparently, they don’t have time to let us know what they are doing for the money they are being paid.

Apparently, ICF can be trusted, but LA homeowners who lost their homes in the hurricanes cannot.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 11:47 am

Yesterday, I noted that the stats for Governor Blanco’s Road Home Program had not been updated since March 12. I contacted the Road Home folks, but got no response.

I don’t know who to thank (Maybe President Bush? He is blamed when things are wrong with the program.), but today the stats have been updated on its website.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the updated stats are dismal.

As of Monday (March 19), for the month of March only 1,725 grant closings have been SCHEDULED. Not closed, but scheduled.

The goal set by ICF is to have 6,000 closings COMPLETED in the month of March. With 10 more days left in March, ICF has its work cut out for it.

For the entire period of the governor’s road home program only 3,085 closings have been held.

Finally, will the next governor of LA rename the Road Home Program for himself? Will he keep the adminstrator ICF?

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 9:22 am

New Orleans has now recorded at least its 42nd murder in the first 77 days of the year.

A victim of a shooting on Sunday afternoon in the 9th Ward has died. Also, another shootingvictim from earlier this month has now died.

Shootings, which are not taken too seriously because they are so common, are getting pretty dangerous. People are beginning to die as a result.

With so many murders of black people I’m beginning to wonder if there is a conspiracy. Strangely, the NOPD seldom has any suspects or motives in these murders. Equally strange is that when the NOPD finds a perpetrator, the District Attorney cuts them loose without a trial. Hmmmm.

Perhaps someone can check with Mayor Nagin to find out what he knows. He has a good handle on conspiracies. See article here.

The mayor should be enlisted in the fight against crime in the city because he always knows which “they” is responsible.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 7:47 am