BATON ROUGE – Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced a plan for the $11 million in disaster recovery for Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish.

The money was awarded last year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Community Development Block Grant funds following the August flood. Kip Holden's administration previously developed a plan, however Mayor Broome's team amended the plan to help "leverage the dollars more effectively and efficiently."

The plan will address homeless prevention, rental repair and home ownership. According to the mayor's office, it will also increase funding for rental housing repairs and leverage the state's ownership assistance program to serve owners who may not qualify for rebuilding assistance. The plan also reduces the city-parish's administrative costs so more money can go towards households in need.

In order for the plan to be finalized and resubmitted to HUD for its final approval, public input is required.

The following public input meetings will be hosted by the Office of Community Development:

- March 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the Eden Park Branch Library, 5131 Greenwell Springs Road, in Baton Rouge
- March 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the Carver Branch Library, 720 Terrace Street, in Baton Rouge

Details of the proposed plan can be found at www.brgov.com/dept/ocd/announcements.htm. If you can't make the public meetings, comments can be submitted to the Office of Community Development, P.O. Box 1471, Baton Rouge LA 70821-1471 or emailed to ocd@brgov.com.