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Governor Edwards requests expansion of flood assistance program

6 years 7 months 1 week ago Tuesday, August 15 2017 Aug 15, 2017 August 15, 2017 6:32 PM August 15, 2017 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Governor John Bel Edwards has requested that the Restore LA Task Force expand its homeowner assistance program.

On Tuesday, the governor asked that the program be expanded to include all homeowners who had flood insurance during last year’s historic flooding in March and August. The governor said he would also like to increase grant awards for those who are already eligible for both construction work and reimbursements.

Gov. Edwards has specifically asked the task force to consider the following:

  • Expanding the program eligibility requirements to include all homeowners with flood insurance who still have an unmet need after insurance proceeds.

  • Increasing the amount the program pays homeowners for flood related repair costs that have not yet been completed. The program currently pays 50% of remaining repair costs for homeowners who have an income above 120% of the Area Median Income (AMI), requiring the homeowner to come up with the rest of the funds to complete repairs. The Governor is asking the Task Force to look at increasing that number to 75 percent or 100 percent.

  • Increasing the percentage homeowners are reimbursed for the repairs they have already completed. Currently, homeowners who are not in Phase 1 or 2 are only reimbursed 25% for repairs they’ve already made. Gov. Edwards is proposing an increase of that amount of up to 50%.

The governor's office says more than 40,000 homeowners have completed the Restore survey, and more than $15 million has been awarded to over 500 homeowners. The Trump administration has noted that Louisiana moved “historically fast,” and awarded reimbursement checks to homeowners 50 days after the funds were made available to the state.

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