After months of anxiety about his past-due bills, Eric Ines felt a wave of relief this summer when he learned the City Council had dedicated $2 million to help cover back payments for Habitat for Humanity homeowners struggling with soaring insurance premiums.
But bureaucratic hurdles have kept that money tied up at City Hall, and Ines and others who purchased their homes through the nonprofit are deeper in the red.
Twenty homeowners received foreclosure notices this month, and another twenty are close behind them, said?Marguerite Oestreicher, Habitat's regional executive director—a stark example of the crisis in Louisiana's property insurance market.?
Marguerite Oestreicher, executive director of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, at the ground breaking ceremony for the Rising Oaks community on Monday, January 22, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
The holdup came after Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration determined that the city couldn't use federal Covid-19 relief funds to help struggling homeowners, as originally envisioned. A spokesperson for the mayor said the city now plans to dip into the general fund, and is working to finalize an agreement with Habitat by the end of the year.
For Ines, 71, the help can't come soon enough. He's put off doctors visits, utility payments, and even cut back on groceries in an effort to catch up on payments for the simple shotgun home he shares with his wife, son, and grandson in the St. Roch neighborhood.
"This worry is eating me up," said Ines, who previously worked as a welder and machine operator at a refinery. "I thought everything would have been secure at my age ... you get the house, fix it up, leave something to the grandkids."
Funding debacle
After Oestreicher detailed how more than 100 Habitat homeowners were facing "imminent foreclosure," the City Council in August unanimously approved a $2 million bailout using Covid relief funds allotted to the city through the American Rescue Plan Act.
But instead of doling out the money directly to Habitat, Cantrell's administration opened up an application process in September to any interested organization. In mid-November, Habitat and the four other organizations that applied were informed the funding notice had "been rescinded" because "the responses we received did not meet the necessary standards" for the ARPA funding.?
Leatrice Dupre, a spokesperson for Cantrell, did not respond to a request for comment about which standards the applications failed to meet.?
Now the city is turning to its general fund to find the $2 million, Dupre said.?
Oestreicher said she was informed Wednesday of the new plan.?
"We look forward to reviewing it," said Oestreicher. "Timing really does matter and this is still of the utmost urgency."
Oestreicher has said that the majority of the money will be used for direct assistance to homeowners, and the rest will be used to hire case workers.
City Council member Lesli Harris said this week that she has "constantly pressed the administration to make these funds available."
"Time is clearly of the essence," she said. "It’s possible to do things right and work efficiently; one doesn’t need to happen at the expense of the other."
With the relief still elusive, Ines is doing his best to bring what joy he can to his family during the holidays.?
"It was?hard to even try to get a Thanksgiving going," said Ines, who cobbled together a full Thanksgiving meal with donated food and what he could spare from his social security check.
"I?can't?deny my family," he said.?