Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Road Home

The Homeowners Assistance Program (Road Home) is the largest single housing recovery program in U.S. history. Eligible homeowners received up to $150,000 in compensation for losses from the storms and had three options:

1. Restore and reoccupy their damaged home.
2. Sell the home to the state and purchase another in Louisiana.
3. Sell the home to the state and opt not to remain a homeowner.

The program had three main components:

• Compensation grants
• Elevation incentives
• Additional compensation grants for low- to moderate-income households

Properties sold to the state were managed by the Louisiana Land Trust, either maintained for future commerce or transferred to parish governments in accordance with property disposition plans.

The program has been closed to new recipients since 2007.

With the exception of the Road Home program, all housing programs for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are now managed by the Louisiana Housing Corporation.

First Time Homebuyer and Soft Second

The First-Time Homebuyer Program assists first-time buyers in purchasing a single-family home or owner-occupied duplex. For this program, a first-time homebuyer is defined as anyone who has not held a property title in the past three years. The program is administered by multiple sub-recipients in impacted parishes.

Similar to the First-Time Homebuyer Program, the Soft Second Program supports low- to moderate-income individuals purchasing their first home. However, with this program, eligible properties must come from the Louisiana Land Trust’s housing stock. This program is administered by the City of New Orleans and the governments of Cameron, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany parishes.

Small Rental Property

The Small Rental Program provides funding for landlords to repair one- to four-unit rental properties, aiming to increase affordable and workforce housing for low- to moderate-income residents. The program also supports the housing market by revitalizing neighborhoods with new or renovated mixed-income units. The program offers financial incentives through forgivable loans, helping property owners restore damaged units and rent them at affordable rates.
 

Nonprofit Rebuilding Pilot and Plaquemines Parish Homeowner Rehabilitation

The Nonprofit Rebuilding Pilot Program (NPPP) provides grants to rebuilding organizations that help homeowners close funding gaps needed to restore storm- or flood-damaged homes.

The Plaquemines Parish Homeowner Rehabilitation Program assists eligible homeowners in completing repairs or rebuilding their homes.

Both programs are available to Road Home and non-Road Home participants.

Multi-Family Rental: Low-Income Housing Tax Credit "Piggyback"

The Piggyback Program finances multi-family workforce rental housing by combining CDBG funds with GO Zone Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs) and projects using tax-exempt private activity bonds and 4% LIHTCs. The program follows best practices for workforce housing development.

Housing Development Loan Fund/Land Assembly Operations

The Housing Development Loan Fund/Land Assembly Operations provides seed funding for contractors or state agencies to establish loan funds offering flexible acquisition and predevelopment financing for critically needed housing. Suitable development sites include surplus properties held by government agencies, nonprofits, churches, and businesses.

Homelessness Supports and Housing

The Homelessness Supports and Housing Program funds the restoration and expansion of homelessness housing capacity in hurricane-impacted areas by providing:

• Capital funds to repair damaged facilities
• Capital grants and rental subsidies to increase Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) for the homeless and at-risk individuals
• Interim rental assistance and deposits for PSH households
• Rental assistance for those at risk of homelessness or currently experiencing homelessness

Supporting Housing Services

This program helps individuals transition to Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) and maintain long-term, successful tenancies. Eligible participants must have an income at or below 50% of the Area Median Income, a long-term disability, and require supportive services to sustain their housing.

Short-Term Assistance and Rental Services

This program supports residents affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including those transitioning out of FEMA Temporary Housing Units. It has also assisted households previously impacted by Katrina and Rita who later suffered damage from Hurricane Isaac.

Contaminated Drywall

In response to the contaminated drywall crisis following the reconstruction after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Louisiana Legislature allocated $5 million from the housing budget to fund testing and rental assistance for affected homeowners.

Support to Community Based Programs

As part of the Road Home Program, funds were allocated to support communities in two key areas:

1. Housing Outreach Services: Provides outreach, technical assistance, and transportation to low- and moderate-income individuals in the Homeowner Housing Assistance Program.
2. Housing Legal Services: Offers legal assistance to low- and moderate-income individuals during the Road Home application process.

Building Code Enforcement

The program was designed to ensure that all homes repaired or rebuilt with Road Home funds complied with the Louisiana State Building Code. It provided code inspectors and permit technicians in 11 parishes to conduct building code inspections and train local inspectors to become certified.

Emergency Rental Assistance/Rapid Re-Housing

Facing capacity challenges among Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) subcontractors, LOCD-DR partnered with the Housing Authority of New Orleans and Disaster Housing Assistance Program case managers to facilitate emergency rental assistance. Like RRH, the program provided rent payments, security deposits, utility assistance, and other approved support. It operated from August 2009 to February 2010.

Project-Based Recovery Opportunity

This program funded unmet, large-scale recovery projects by providing direct, low-interest loans to assist neighborhood and local economic development priorities; invest in commercial corridor revitalization; support key local and state industry sectors; spur long-term job creation, economic revitalization and long-term sustainability; and employ disaster recovery resources to leverage private resources.

Innovation Loan and Technical Assistance

This program funded sub-recipients to provide loans and technical assistance to small or start-up businesses for financial management, one-on-one counseling, business plan development and website development. Loans ranged in size from $50,000 to $500,000 and were used for equipment, inventory and real estate acquisition or construction.

Recovery Workforce Facilities

The state allocated $20 million to develop a facility to house workforce training programs implemented by Southwest Louisiana Technical Community College (SOWELA). Post-storms, Louisiana experienced a dramatic increase in the extraction of natural gas and multiple secondary industries that located or expanded in storm-affected areas, requiring a trained workforce.

Bridge Loan

Immediately following the 2005 storms, the state instituted a Disaster Bridge Loan program for small businesses to bridge the funding gap that existed until insurance paid a claim or an SBA Disaster Loan arrived.

Business Recovery Grant/Loan

Through a partnership with Louisiana Economic Development, this program provided immediate financial relief to restart and sustain small businesses in the most affected areas of Louisiana, particularly those that experienced a decrease in revenue after the storms. LOCD-DR funded nine community-based nonprofit organizations to administer the program.

Technical Assistance to Small Firms

This program provided technical assistance to small businesses in the most affected areas of Louisiana to help businesses adapt to a changed environment. Services included accounting, business planning, marketing, disaster planning and advertising.

Recovery Workforce Training

This program provided training and placement of workers in critical recovery sectors, including construction, healthcare, transportation, cultural economy, advanced manufacturing and oil and gas. Eighteen workforce training programs provided funding through this program, which ended in 2010.

Louisiana Tourism Marketing Initiative

In cooperation with the state Dept. of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, this program promoted tourism in the storm-impacted parishes by increasing the number of visitors, thereby boosting Louisiana’s tax revenues and fostering national consciousness of our unique culture. Eleven parishes received grants for programs ranging from family tours to marketing campaigns that touted Louisiana and its communities as open for business.

Research Commercialization and Education Enhancement

Administered by the Board of Regents, this program boosted the economic impact of the scientific and technology research facilities in the higher educational institutions of the most severely affected areas. The five-year program provided grants to 11 consortiums of universities in pharmacology, cancer biology, coastal protection and other sciences. The program resulted in 1,387 publications and the application and receipt of approximately 455 technology transfers, patents or licenses.

Public Service - Cecil J. Picard/LA 4 Early Childhood Education

This program provided funding to the Louisiana Department of Education for the Cecil J. Picard LA4 program to provide high-quality early childhood education to children from low- to moderate-income families who were eligible to attend kindergarten the following year. Funding for this program combined $15.7 million in both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita funds and $20 million in Hurricanes Gustav and Ike funds made available to the Department of Education for the 2012-13 school year.