When Hurricane Katrina struck east of New Orleans, the storm and the engineering failures it exposed spawned a whole new way of providing federal aid to homeowners. Via the Road Home program, disaster recovery community development block grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development eventually provided $9 billion to help 130,000 Louisianans either rebuild or get bought out.
Sixteen years later, what was once a groundbreaking idea — that government can and should fill the gap between insurance proceeds and the cost of rebuilding following a major disaster — has been employed repeatedly, including around Baton Rouge following the 2016 flood.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that the money must first be approved by Congress, which means that desperately needed help for battered communities is subject to politics, as it was after Katrina. Exhibit A these days is the state’s $3 billion request to rebuild Lake Charles and the surrounding area after Hurricane Laura. It’s now been more than a year, and residents are still waiting.
That’s not right, and it’s not necessary.
It’s hard to pinpoint why the aid has been so slow in coming. Both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden expressed support, although the effort probably got lost somewhere in the messy transition between their administrations.
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, hasn’t stepped up, but both of Louisiana’s senators and the state’s other members are trying. And yet Calcasieu Parish waits as homes rot, residents make crucial decisions whether to come back or stay away, and people who’ve rebuilt wonder if the neighborhoods around them will sink or swim.
The grants in question are separate from FEMA aid to clear debris and rebuild public buildings, but FEMA offers a model because Congress appropriates money to the agency for immediate help soon after a disaster. It could do the same with community development block grants, and several members have proposed legislation to make that happen, including U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge.
This money can be used for various community needs, from public housing to resilience to providing a local match for other types of federal aid. In Calcasieu Parish, leaders want to put it into housing; they note that the slow pace of rebuilding has led to a labor shortage, and that the more time passes, the more likely that neighborhoods full of still-untouched homes won’t bounce back.
In this age of superstorms, Calcasieu residents won’t be the last to face this dire situation. But if Congress acts, they may be the last to have to wait so long for a helping hand from Washington.