Washington, DC – Today Congressman William J. Jefferson (D-La.) testified before the House Financial Services Committee examining the Federal Housing Response to Hurricane Katrina.  The hearing focused on the importance of providing affordable rental housing units for the tens of thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents who want to return to their homes.

Before the Committee, Congressman Jefferson said, “The drowning of New Orleans was not caused by Hurricane Katrina itself.  Rather, according to the Inter-Agency Performance Evaluation Task Force” report, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers admits that its negligence in the design, construction and maintenance of our levees was the cause of the destruction of homes, businesses and lives of hundreds of thousands of our people.”  

“This federal government agency-made disaster has been made worse by the failure of the federal response from Congress and the President to use real numbers that match-up to the scope of the devastation of our area and that would actually pay the true cost of recovery…the help given has not matched-up to the help needed in real terms to fully rebuild and recover, given the federal responsibility for the losses.” 

In regard to Louisiana’s Road Home Program, Jefferson pointed out that more than 100,000 people have applied for assistance, but only some 300 have actually received grants.  Jefferson went on to say, “While the creation of a bureaucracy by the state in the administration of this program in order to ensure against improper payment is laudable, guidance from the Committee with respect to the use of banks to disburse these funds, deadlines for the disbursement of funds, and the permissible use of the funds for administrative costs and grants to business would be helpful.”

Also today, Congressman Jefferson attended a press conference hosted by the “NAACP Gulf Coast Advocacy Center” and a group called the “Advancement Project.”  At the meeting, several New Orleans public housing residents who are still currently displaced after Hurricane Katrina, spoke of their frustration with the federal government’s poor response to their housing situation.  They believe HUD should not demolish the housing projects, but instead, they think it should repair the existing buildings so that the residents can return home to New Orleans as soon as possible.

When he addressed the residents, Congressman Jefferson said, “The HUD approach is bureaucratic, discriminatory and simply wrong.  These low-income families have the right to return to their still-standing homes as quickly as possible.  They shouldn’t be forced to live in other cities and states and pay much higher rents for apartments when their homes in New Orleans sit vacant and in many cases- ready for residents to move back in.”