An interesting post by Christopher Brauchli from Spot-on... called "Painless, Profitable Giving"... here is a snippet:

"The reason most of my readers do not give away all their income to charities is because they like to eat and food costs money. So does housing. Many of my readers use most, if not all, of their adjusted gross income, to survive. The only people for whom adjusted gross income is nothing more than a trifle are the very rich. Thus, it turns out that one of the most significant benefits of the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005, goes to President Bush's very wealthy friends and their pet charities."

• Painless, Profitable Giving
• Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005
• Strengthening Transparency Governance Accountability of Charitable Organizations (a final report to Congress and the Nonprofit Sector, June 2005)

Thanks to your web site, I was able to get an lead on my high school friend of 1958. We lost track after she moved to mississippi. Your web site helped me find her. Keep up the good work. You are making a difference.

From today's New York Times...

"The federal government will help an estimated 20,000 families make 12 months of mortgage payments on homes that were damaged by the Gulf Coast hurricanes, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced yesterday.

The program, which officials called unprecedented, is meant to allow homeowners to 'come back home and concentrate on putting their lives in order without having to worry about making mortgage payments,' said Alphonso R. Jackson, the housing secretary.

But the assistance program will apply only to a small group of homeowners in the disaster areas: those whose mortgages are insured by the Federal Housing Administration and whose houses can be repaired. Recipients must also pledge to return to those houses."

See link below for full text (requires free registration):

• Mortgage Aid Set for 20,000 Storm-Hit Homes

From today's CNN...

"The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, a tax-exempt charity established to assist the recovery, has raised $110 million from individual and corporate donors.

The initial grants will include:

$40 million to funds established by the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama for non-governmental needs.

$30 million to more than 30 colleges and secondary schools in the three states.

$20 million to a ministers fund, administered by an executive committee of clergy, to address the needs of their communities and congregations."

See link below for full text:

• Katrina relief fund to distribute $90 million

From CNN:
"More than three months after thousands of people lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina, officials are trading blame over the slow delivery of trailers. 'We got people living in tents and automobiles. We got people living in barns. We got people living in their houses -- in tents,' said St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez... Adding to Rodriguez's frustration is the fact that 1,400 trailers are sitting unused in St. Bernard Parish. The parish ordered them from a private contractor days after the hurricane hit on August 29, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has not agreed to pay for them... There are also more than 5,000 FEMA mobile homes in Arkansas sitting unused, CNN has learned."

A related story from CNN:
"A program that put Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels must be extended until February 7, a month beyond the deadline set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a judge ruled Monday... Attorneys pressing the lawsuit said FEMA should not be allowed to end the hotel program because it has failed to provide other housing aid, such as rental assistance checks, to many victims who qualify for it... Also, information on how to apply for the aid has been slow to reach those who need it most, the attorneys said... FEMA continues to pay for an estimated 41,000 hotel rooms in 47 states and the District of Columbia at an estimated cost so far of about $350 million."

See links below for full texts:

• Katrina victims: 'Living in barns'
• Judge orders extension of Katrina hotel program

From today's New York Times:

"House and Senate leaders need to hold a vote on a bill to bolster unemployment benefits for the people left unemployed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita...

For hurricane victims receiving federal disaster unemployment benefits, generally the self-employed, the bill would guarantee at least $135 a week. That's 50 percent of the national average for unemployment benefits - hardly a windfall. But it would mean a lot to the nearly 101,000 people in Louisiana who currently receive $98 a week, on average. Some 30,000 recipients in Mississippi, Texas and Alabama tend to fare better than their Louisiana counterparts, but they would also be helped if their weekly benefits fell below the new proposed minimum.

The bill would also commit the federal government to extending hurricane-related unemployment benefits for an additional 26 weeks, if needed, when those benefits start to expire toward the end of February."

• Full text of article... (The New York Times' site requires free registration)

From today's New York Times...

"...federal loans to rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina have been flowing to wealthy neighborhoods in New Orleans but not to poor ones.

The Small Business Administration, which runs the federal government's main disaster recovery program for both businesses and homeowners, has processed only a third of the 276,000 home loan applications it has received. And it has rejected a whopping 82 percent of those, a higher percentage than in previous disasters, on the grounds that applicants didn't have high enough incomes or good enough credit ratings...

Poor people live from paycheck to paycheck, unable to accumulate assets. They let their water bill go unpaid one month so that they can pay their light bill. Their credit ratings tend to reflect that."

See link below for full text of article (The New York Times' site requires free registration):

• The Poor Need Not Apply

Katrina Housing Assistance 1-866-373-9509 or you can go to Louisiana.gov and click on disaster recovery,if no longer avail-please feel free to email me and I will send you the info I have recovered from the official site

Fourteen months after Katrina hit, just 22 families have received access to cash to repair their flooded homes.

"The $7.5 billion program to rebuild Louisiana by helping residents repair or replace their flooded homes has gotten off to a slow start, frustrating government officials and outraging many homeowners who say they are still in limbo 14 months after Hurricane Katrina hit.

Though nearly 79,000 families have applied to the program, called the Road Home, only 1,721 have been told how much grant money they will receive. And just 22 have received access to the cash, which was provided by federal taxpayers and is being distributed by the state.

'I don’t know of anyone who has actually received any money,' said Cassandra D. Wall, who is active in a group of homeowners from the eastern part of New Orleans. Ms. Wall said she planned to attend a protest Nov. 17 in Baton Rouge, the state capital, 'to go public with the outrage and the outcry.'”

See link below for full article...

• Slow Home Grants Stall Progress in New Orleans... (from The NY Times)

I just found a link to a page that helps people still needing help from the ravages of Katrina.
I hope it helps those who are still in need.
Holly

• KATRINA AID

My husband and I finally found each other after Hurricane Katrina and need help to reunite. If someone can help please email me at christybournes@gmail.com

HERE IS THE RED CROSS "SAFE AND WELL " PAGE .
IT IS A SITE WHERE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN RAVAGED BY A DISASTER CAN POST A MESSAGE TO THEIR RELATIVES .
JUST ANOTHER WAY TO SEARCH IF YOU HAVEN'T TRIED THIS TO FIND YOUR LOVED ONE.


Providing Safe and Well Information
Welcome to the American Red Cross Safe and Well Website. If you have been affected by a disaster, this website provides a way for you to register yourself as “safe and well.” From a list of standard messages, you can select those that you want to communicate to your family members, letting them know of your well-being.


Concerned family and friends can search the list of those who have registered themselves as “safe and well.” The results of a successful search will display a loved one’s First Name, Last Name, an “As of Date”, and the “safe and well” messages selected.


Ingreso de datos en la lista Sano y salvo
Bienvenido al sitio web “Sano y salvo” de la Cruz Roja Americana. A través de este sitio, las personas damnificadas por un desastre pueden anotarse en la lista “Sano y salvo” y seleccionar los mensajes que desean dejar a sus familiares y amigos para avisarles que se encuentran bien.


A su vez, el sitio web “Sano y salvo” permite a quienes estén preocupados por un ser querido conocer la situación de quienes se han anotado en la lista “Sano y salvo”. Los resultados de una búsqueda exitosa mostrarán el Nombre, Apellido, la Fecha en que se ingresaron los datos en la lista, y los mensajes seleccionados por quienes se han anotado en la lista “Sano y salvo”.

soulight









soulight

• RED CROSS SAFE AND WELL PAGE

From today's New York Times (see link to full article at the bottom of this comment):

"The (Bush) administration’s mishandling of the crisis has often looked like a calculated attempt to discourage displaced people from seeking housing aid, even if it means leaving them vulnerable to homelessness. A federal district court judge implied as much this week, when he found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s aid application process was so convoluted and confusing as to be unconstitutional — and likened it to something out of a horror story by Kafka.

Judge Richard Leon ruled that FEMA had unconstitutionally denied housing aid to thousands of residents who were displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He ordered the government to resume payments immediately, pointing to blind alleys and contradictory information that often led vulnerable families to lose aid without understanding why or having reasonable recourse to appeal...

Congress needs to make sure that its housing application process is rendered intelligible. But it needs to go much further. It has to make sure that the survivors who qualify are given aid through programs like Section 8 that allow them to pick up their lives quickly..."

• Link to The New York Times article...

Emil ,
Another article that tells the truth.
I like the part that says "to pick up their lives quickly"
How much longer do these people have to suffer ?
Our government should be ashamed.
Holly

Yes, Holly... these days... it seems that many people in high government and corporate positions are totally incompetent and lacking the proverbial American "can do" attitude and desire to really do something... as opposed to following bureaucratic procedures and waiting for instructions from above... especially problematic when "above" is a bunch of "capable" people like Bush, Cheney, and their corporate buddies.

maam or sir,

My name is Curtis and i got to school in Dallas TX. I dont know who else to write. I go to school with some 20 evacuees of Katrina [at Paul Quinn College]. My roommates name is Troy Whittey and he and his girlfriend, Jasmin [ages 19 and 18 respectively], are expecting a child. They dont have much family here and they've grown close to our community [though i'm only 1 1/2 years removed from Ohio]. They are the ones who've interested me in church by the faith they had after all they'd been through. now i feel obligated to help them, because they dont have anywhere to go,and have no money since they're trying to stay in school. Jasmin just found out the school won't let her stay here now that she's pregnant so Troy is trying to got to school FT and work FT.

can u help them get a nice apartment where they can still attend school here where they've grown to be family with us at Paul Quinn? Even if it's just a genuine referral for a branch of your organization down here that will help soon, we'd greatly appreciate it! Just to let you know i am not staff or anybody representing this school...just a concerned friend. Thanks for your time. God Bless your cause.

sincerely,
Curtis Leon' Drafton

Curtis Leon' Drafton
3837 Simpson Stuart RD
PQC Box 431
Dallas, TX 75241
214-598-4101 cell
or
214-989-3301 msg. 24 hrs.