Road Home to demand cash back from some homeowners
by The Associated Press
Saturday March 29, 2008, 9:29 PM
NEW ORLEANS -- The private contractor under investigation for the compensation it received to run the Road Home grant program for Katrina victims says that, in the rush to deliver aid to homeowners in need, some people got too much. Now it wants to hire a separate company to collect millions in grant overpayments.
The contractor, ICF International of Fairfax, Va., revealed the extent of the overpayments when it issued a March 11 request for bids from companies willing to handle "approximately 1,000 to 5,000 cases that will necessitate collection effort."
The bid invitation said: "The average amount to be collected is estimated to be approximately $35,000, but in some cases may be as high as $100,000 to $150,000."
The biggest grant amount allowed by the Road Home program is $150,000, so ICF believes it paid some recipients the maximum when they should not have received a penny. If ICF's highest estimate of 5,000 collection cases -- overpaid by an average of $35,000 -- proves to be true, applicants will have to pay back a total of $175 million.
One-third of qualified applicants for Road Home help had yet to receive any rebuilding check as of this past week. The program, which has come to symbolize the lurching Katrina recovery effort, has $11 billion in federal money.
At this point, do we really need to hire another sub-contractor to just make things even messier? I'm thinking maybe we should establish some sort of Road Home co-op lke say Freecycle where folks who got too much money can get directly in touch with the folks who didn't get enough and let them negotiate their own terms. Maybe somebody will end up with a used bicycle chain and nice sofa as well.
Adding: I wonder if these people have any sofas
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