Housing aid fund bill goes to Senate

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 22, 2009 - Page: 8A

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Dezoray Spears, of Baton Rouge, said he has moved around five times in the past three years as he tried to retain housing assistance since Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home in 2005.

Spears said he is now being kicked out again as he transitions between assistance programs.

Legislation that would move $5 million of available state and federal disaster funding to a program for people losing federal assistance cleared a Senate committee Thursday.

Spears attended the Senate Local and Municipal Affairs committee to hear what would be available after the federal Disaster Housing Assistance Program, called DHAP, expires Aug. 31. Another federal trailer program ended at the beginning of May.

Spears said DHAP was paying his $1,200 rent. He and other federal assistance recipients are being transitioned to housing vouchers.

But Spears said the voucher will only pay $1,143 of his rent and doesn’t allow him to pay the difference.

“It’s affecting me as a parent,” said Spears, who lives with his girlfriend and her three children. “It’s affecting my kids, affecting their grades.”

Robin Keegan, deputy director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, told the committee the bill may not be necessary.

Keegan’s organization, called the LRA, is the state disaster assistance agency and is tasked with handling the housing programs.

“We do believe we have resources in place and the ability to put resources in place without this bill,” Keegan said.

She said millions of dollars are expected to flow in from the federal government, with some going directly to local communities.

The LRA is also asking the federal government to waive income requirements so struggling working families that are ineligible for the programs might be able to participate, Keegan said.

Senate Bill 167, sponsored by Sen. Cheryl Gray Evans, D-New Orleans, is specifically targeted to those families.