Shame --

This would not be happening if the feds and the state had figured out a way to get that Road Home program to operate efficiently. And don't forget ICFI, either.

The Daily Advertiser

More Gulf Coast residents are thinking seriously about suicide or showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as the recovery from Hurricane Katrina inches on, a new survey finds.

The survey is a follow-up to one done six months after the hurricane, which found that few people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — about 3 percent — were thinking about suicide.

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That figure has now doubled in the three-state area and is up to 8 percent in the New Orleans area, according to Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School, lead researcher for the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group.

It may be six months before results are in publishable form, said Kessler, whose team interviewed 1,000 people last year and was able to track down 800 of them for this year’s interviews.

But he said some preliminary results are striking. One is that about 21 percent of the 800 people interviewed showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, up from 16 percent a year earlier.

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Damn straight!

New Orleans residents ‘deserve better,’ marchers say -- Baton Rouge, LA

This Road Home mess has led us everywhere but home,’’ ACORN’s Gwendolyn Adams said at the Capitol. “We are not refugees. We are citizens.’’

Not a good headline.

From the Times Picayune

All Road Home money has been committed

More catching up.

I had heard rumors about this story shortly after Katrina, but I don't think anyone around here had any idea how much aid was turned away by Bush and the Feds.

Blanco and Landrieu issued statements -- which will go unheard by FEMA, and ignored by those who continue to blame Blanco for everything that went wrong after Katrina.

Apparently the Homeland Security Committee of the Senate is going to investigate, but the chair is Joe Liebermann, so I don't expect it to accomplish much.

UPDATE: Landrieu goes after Rice on this issue. Good on her! P.S. The article also says that Landrieu's subcommittee is going to call ICF to account on May 24. Their top executives have just gotten massive bonuses for doing a terrible job getting money to people whose houses have been destroyed.

N.Y. Times on HUD mandated changes to Road Home

First the national politicians don't want to give money for recovery because of Louisiana's "reputation for corruption." So we create a program with multiple safeguards against fraud. Now HUD wants us to make things easier for recipients by giving lump-sum payments. So the prospect of corruption and fraud emerges again. We just can't win.

Louisiana homeowners may get faster access to rebuilding grants after a federal decision late last month that is forcing the state to change its slow-moving $7.5-billion “Road Home” program to repair houses damaged or destroyed by hurricanes in 2005.

But the changes, which should be detailed next week, have raised concerns that some homeowners will not use their grants of up to $150,000 for repairs or could lose them to fraud or debt, potentially leading to increased blight in hard-hit areas.

My theory about ICFU

Here it is, take it for what it's worth.

The day after the announcement the stock of the company (ICFI) that was running the Road Home Program, and failing, jumped 15 %-- to an all time high. Stockholders were figuring either one of two things: 1. That Blanco was holding their feet to the fire and cutting into their profits. or 2. That now that they had done the dirty work for the Bushies they would be rewarded with nice fat federal contracts. Maybe a little of both. But I hold with the second. The stalling by ICFI was calculated from the beginning. ICFI, headed by Washington insiders from FEMA and Homeland Security abetted by the feds, to sabotage the program long enough for Jindal to defeat Blanco. The most recent example of fed interference was the HUD roadblock which sabotaged that Louisiana's plan to have the reconstruction money put into escrow accounts instead of awarding a lump sum. HUD found an obscure regulation to monkeywrench a policy that had been in place and announced for more than a year. They said they just found out about it. Yeah, right. An article in the Picayune this morning said that the HUD move was the last straw for Kathleen. She knew then that the feds would never open the spigot on the money till she was out of office. And now that Blanco is out, ICFI stands to get a windfall in federal contracts from this administration.


When The Advertiser interviewed Blanco, and she said that she should have changed her party to Republican immediately after Katrina. Then the recovery would have been no sweat. She's right.

HUD gave the coup de grace to Blanco.

The Governor had been in serious trouble for months, mostly because of the slow response of the Road Home program. Money was snagged for months by ICFI (run by former FEMA and Homeland Security officials) At the point when it seemed that money might be starting to flow for the recovery, HUD refused to approve the safeguards the state had built into the program to assure that the money would be spent on recovery, and not on anything else (Remember those $2000 credit cards the feds gave out after Katrina--- used for strippers and beer in some cases. The state required escrow accounts for the Road Home money to prevent those abuses.)

But the final straw came Friday, when federal Housing and Urban Development officials criticized the way the state was distributing aid through installments from escrow accounts and urged the state to begin making lump-sum payments to homeowners who have applied for assistance from the Road Home program.

HUD claimed that it had not known about the requirements until now. Yeah, right, then how come I and everyone else in Louisiana has known about them for more than a year? Was there politics involved in the timing of this? Ya think? Maybe someone at HUD thought this might somehow benefit the Administration? Ya think? Does this maybe validate Blanco's charge that the Bush administration has been playing politics with the recovery effort? Ya think?

So maybe the BIG jump in ICFI's stock market price came as stockholders realized that ICFI was in for some big rewards for defeating Blanco in the form of fat new contracts from the Feds. Ya think?

Just another day on Wall Street?

The day after Kathleen Blanco's announcement that she wouldn't run for a second term, ICFI's stock jumped more than 15%. It's biggest jump ever. An all-time high. What exactly does that mean?

To me it seems that the ICFI insiders and stockholders figure that they will get a better deal under a new governor (are they betting on Jindal?) -- even though I don't think that Blanco has been particularly tough on them considering their dismal performance so far. Anyway, I don't believe that what's good for ICFI stockholders is good for Louisiana. New Orleans, beware.

Good news from ICFI for a change.

ICFI almost meets its projected goal for the month. Its stock soars in an otherwise down market.
Is the Road Home now an open road-- some investors seem to think so. We'll see.

Treasurer says ICFI hire was "a mistake"

State Treasurer John Kennedy said the hiring of ICF to administer the Road Home’s financial awards was a mistake and that the state should now look to bring in banking institutions to help move the money out faster.

Kennedy told Eyewitness News that banks were initially interested in participating in the process, but were told they weren’t needed after the program was designed.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” said Kennedy. “The Road Home program, choosing who we did, that's a mistake. We need to admit it and go to plan B and get our banks involved. They know how to move money. They do it for a living.”

Hmmmm. Ya think?

PS: I have been away from the computer for about a week for regularly scheduled maintenance. Sorry for any inconvenience.

We'll see.

The contractor running Louisiana's Road Home program to provide repairs and buyouts after the hurricanes estimates it will hand out 2,300 grants this month — more than five times the number of grants it has awarded so far.

Lots of activity today in the paper.

First, though, I got an email from C. B. Forgotston in the mail this morning, and I hope he'll put it on his site. He asks the right questions about the ICFI / Road Home fiasco. Here are a few:

-- Who selected ICF to manage LA's program?
--What leverage does LA have over ICF?
-- What company was hired to manage Mississippi's similar program?
-- How long will ICF be given to get it right?

All of these are questions that the news media and the legislators in this state should be asking. The governor may be frustrated with the pace of the program, but the only way to make progress is to haul the people responsible out into the public eye and make answer for their inaction. It's no good just to say that you're impatient with the progress ICFI is making.

You can find Forgotston here. I don't always agree with his point of view, but there's no question he has the state's best interests at heart.

What set off Forgotston's email this morning was this article in the Picayune. Here's the central thesis of the piece.

The record shows ICF making critical misjudgments almost every step of the way, typically by failing to bring sufficient staff resources to bear as applicants move through the process. A shortage of operators at a phone call-in center is addressed, only to be followed by a shortage of interviewers as applicants sign up for face-to-face encounters with ICF advisers. And so on down the line.

As Forgotston notes, though the article is quite long, there's little new in it, and very little attempt to find those responsible for the multiple screw-ups of ICFI. But it's an article worth reading and re-reading for gems like this:

Other critics of ICF point out that in Mississippi, the company handling the first phase of its homeowner grant program has already closed on 80 percent of the 14,615 applications deemed eligible for compensation, with total awards expected to reach about $1 billion. Mississippi officials attribute much of that progress to the fact that their contractor overstaffed at the beginning and quickly began laying off employees when the work was done. The state also loosened its verification requirements.

And this:

Tulane University professor Melanie Ehrlich, founder and co-chairman of the Citizens' Road Home Action Team, said members of the Louisiana Recovery Authority were so worried about designing a fraud-proof program that it is now loaded down with "excessive" verification requirements, such as multiple identification checks and title searches for homeowners who have already furnished up-to-date mortgage and title records.

And this:

Jones said the pilot project exemplifies ICF's approach, which he likens to a "python swallowing a pig." Instead of working out all the major kinks in advance, he said, ICF hasn't dealt with many issues until they became a crisis. Usually, he said, that happened when a large number of applications hit a critical point in the pipeline, such as scheduling appointments with advisers or calculating awards.

And more, including the fact that the Road Home Program is now requiring ICFI employees to identify themselves as such, not as members of the Road Home Program. The state program no longer wants to be identified with ICFI.

ICFI Road Home improves performance.

Fifty-nine homeowners closed on deals in the seven-day period ending Jan. 16 in the most productive week of the first four months of The Road Home program.

The Road Home had averaged just 7.5 closings per week in the first 15 weeks of the program.

The total paid to homeowners nearly doubled in one week from $5.45 million as of Jan. 9 to $9.4 million as of Tuesday.

Road Home officials report interviews have been held or scheduled with 66,016 eligible homeowners affected by hurricanes Katrina or Rita. An estimated 123,000 can apply for up to $150,000 in compensation to help rebuild or relocate. Through four months,

from New Orleans City Business

But lawmakers still not pleased.

We’ve tried ICF (International). It hasn’t worked,” Sen. Derrick Shepperd, D-Marrero, said of the company running the program. “The ($756 million) contract is too big for ICF. Just call it what it is. It isn’t rocket science. We’re not getting any results.”

Mike Spletto, senior housing manager for the “Road Home” program, told the Joint Subcommittee on New Orleans of the Select Committee on Disaster Planning, Crisis Management, Recovery and Long-Term Revitalization that nearly 99,000 homeowners have applied for assistance under the program and some 63,000 appointments have been held — but only 177 homeowners have received funding as of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

from the Advocate

Recovery grants forecast retracted

Oh, well, yeah. We DID expect something like this -- but so soon?

Recovery grants forecast retracted
ICF official backs off 500-a-day estimate
Thursday, January 11, 2007
By David Hammer

The much-maligned administrator of Louisiana's Road Home program is backing off a statement last month that it would hand out 500 grants a day to homeowners by the end of January.

In the 25 days since Road Home administrator Michael Byrne assured angry Louisiana Recovery Authority board members of the impending flow of housing aid, the program has averaged fewer than three closings a day.

ICF International, the company with a $756 million state contract to handle federal money -- including $7.5 billion in grants for homeowners -- came under fire late last year for errors and slowdowns. State legislators recommended firing the company.

ICF: What do the subs do?

According to this article, Quadel is in charge of hiring and training the staff for Road Home, and the Shaw Group set up the assistance centers.

These companies seem to have completed their work on time. That narrows responsibility for the Road Home FUBAR down to . . . ???

ICFI in deeper doo-doo

Finally, someone in the media pays attention to ICF-- who runs it and how.

"They have always failed to understand the magnitude of this undertaking or commit the amount of resources they need to get the job done," said Sam Jones, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Community Programs.
. . . . . .
So far, however, the contract has been very good for ICF. After the company went public, it distributed $2.7 million in one-time bonuses to 30 of its top managers. Byrne said he was not one of the recipients, but he declined to reveal his salary or say what any other executives in charge of the Road Home contract are making.

"It is private information and we won't disclose that," ICF spokeswoman Gentry Brann said. "It wouldn't be fair to the employees."
. . . . . .
"We are ahead of what we said in our contract we would meet," Brann said.

Jones said ICF officials are making a "false argument."

"To meet their contractual obligations, there are benchmarks you have to meet and they were not meeting them," Jones said. "That's it. Our bells first went off when they weren't meeting even the earliest projections. We don't need to find out six months from now that they are going to fail to meet the contract expectations. We can't wait until then."

Uh huh.

Powell blisters Sudhakar Kesavan,

"As I expressed by phone, I have serious concerns about the effectiveness and expediency of the program," Powell said in a letter to Sudhakar Kesavan, chief executive of the Virginia-based ICF International.

"As I write this letter, only 92 homeowners have received financial assistance out of over 80,000 applicants, or .1 percent of applicants," he wrote. "This rate must dramatically improve."

ICFI tweaks the process.

I guess they didn't see the need to speed things up any earlier. I guess 92 out of 80,000 (or 0.115%) applications was good enough.

ICF International, which is running the $7.5 billion program, is under pressure to speed up help for homeowners.

President Bush’s point-man on the hurricane recovery weighed in Wednesday in a letter that takes ICF to task for getting financial assistance to only 1 percent (sic) of applicants.

Since the program began this summer, 92 homeowners have received funding. More than 80,000 homeowners have applied for assistance.

“I have serious concerns about the effectiveness and expediency of the program,” Don Powell wrote ICF.

ICF spokesman Dwight Cunningham said late Wednesday that the company is preparing a response.

“We have received the letter from Chairman Powell and we are responding,” he said.

A New Orleans lawmaker recently pitched a tent on the State Capitol lawn and vowed to stay there until the program improved.

Rep. Charmaine Marchand, D-New Orleans, took down her tent Wednesday, a day after meeting with Blanco and other top officials for three hours at the Governor’s Mansion.

Marchand, whose legislative district includes the heavily hit Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, complained of homeowners receiving offers of $87 from ICF for their property.

The maximum allowable under the program is $150,000.

New Orleans Sen. Ann Duplessis, who has been part of Blanco’s team looking at improving the Road Home program, said in a prepared statement, “The changes make sense when you consider how diverse the New Orleans housing market is. We have an entire team of local professionals dedicated to the real estate and housing industry, and they will now play a vital role in making the Road Home program work better for our people.”

Yeah, the article is wrong. It is not one percent but 0.115% -- or if you want to round that off, 0% of applicants who have received any money from Road Home.

Update: Much more detail on the changes here.

Some ICF history. How they put this project together.

Here are key dates in the ICF contract.

All of these links are to ICF news releases:

January 2006 ICF hires Michael Byrne from FEMA and Homeland Security.

April 2006 ICF becomes ICF International.


June 29, 2006: ICFI, Michael Byrne hire former FBI agent Robert Blitzer, Deputy Assistant Secretray at Department of Health and Human Services. According to ICFI,

He also provided leadership and support for preparations and response to imminent threats to public health such as the U.S. Federal Government's response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) threat, as well as other public health emergencies, including the hurricanes that occurred in 2005 and 2006 in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.

June 30, 2006. ICFI announces $87 million preliminary contract for Road Home project. The award of the contract happened on June 12. They hire subcontractors
"Deltha Corporation,
First American Title Insurance Company,
Jones Walker,
KPMG International,
Microsoft,
Quadel Consulting,
Providence Engineering & Environmental Group, L.L.C.,
The Shaw Group, and
STR, L.L.C."

Michael Byrne states:

". . . we expect to double local hiring and team with an even greater number of local firms. We are honored to play such an important role in helping displaced residents rebuild their communities."

However, the press release ends with this curious legalese:

Words such as “will,” "expect,” and similar words or phrasing, identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements.

(In other words-- we sound like we're promising performance, but don't take that seriously. There's actually a whole paragraph which essentially says, don't hold us to any promises we make.)

October 23, 2006: ICFI moves to sell $49 million in stock.

ICF International (Nasdaq: ICFI) announced today that the underwriters of its initial public offering of shares of its common stock, which began trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market on September 28, 2006, have fully exercised their overallotment option to purchase an additional 700,500 shares. All of the overallotment shares were sold by ICF. With the exercise of the underwriters’ option, the aggregate net proceeds to ICF of its offering were approximately US$48.7 million.

December 18, 2006: ICFI accentuates the positive.

ICF International Receives Expression of Support from the State of Louisiana

A somewhat misleading headline, since three days previously the legislature asked the Governor to fire ICFI.