Monday, October 16, 2006

Bump in Road Home

Today in the mail I received a letter from the Road Home. They said "Congratulations! We have determined that you are eligible for benefits under the Road Home homeowner compensation program." Cool. We were part of a pilot program and were anxious to receive this letter. It said we were eligible for a grant for $64,116.87 if we decide to stay in Louisiana. If we moved out of the state, we could get a grant for $5,655.27. But there are some major mistakes in their calculations. Here is what they determined:
Estimated Pre-Storm Value $146,154 (we think it was $175,000, and we paid $157,000 for it in 2002)
Estimated Damage to Your Home $289,363.80 (wow)
Homeowner's Insurance Proceeds $12,495.67 (we have only received $3944.73 from Allstate)
FEMA Assistance $0
Flood Insurance Proceed $64,541.00 (accurate)
Penalty Assessed for No Insurance $0

So now I'm trying to figure out who to contact to let them know about these errors.

5 comments:

Tim Bulkeley said...

Sounds like hugely good news, at last, especially if they make a more realistic estimate of the figure!

mominem said...

Congratulations and Thanks.

I've been looking for a source of the actual grant calculations.

Did they explain the calculation?

I was looking at your numbers and no combination I can see gives the result you reported.

I understad (but am not certain) that the grant is based on the lesser of the damage or the decrease in value, minus insurance and FEMA grants.

If you use their pre-K value ($146,154.00) and deduct the insurance they list ($77,036.67) you get $69,117,33.

That means they have valued your home at $5,000.33.

Got any ideas how the did their math?

Michael Homan said...

I have no idea how they did the math, but something seems wrong as Mominem points out. The day I received the letter I called Cassandra, our Road Home caseworker, and pointed out this and other problems. She said she would try to figure it out and get back to us today. I've been impressed with their response thus far. Perhaps I'm just lucky to have a competant case worker.

Anonymous said...

I'm very interested to see how this plays out Michael.

I'm conditioned to programs that are hodge-podge of foundations, funding, volunteers, groupies, and appeals to the sense of duty of residents by well-paid architects. It knocks my socks off that you were able to get someone on the phone.

Michael Homan said...

Cassandra still hasn't gotten back to us to answer the questions that I have. I left a message today for her. Tomorrow it will have been one week since we heard from her.