Ohio Rep. Pleads For National Disaster Aid
The Florida Times-Union reports that the chairman of a House subcommittee on housing urged Wednesday for federal mortgage aid - now offered to victims of the recent Gulf Coast hurricanes - to extend to all areas of the U.S. affected by natural disasters. Ohio Representative Bob Ney wrote Alphonso Jackson, the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, that the agency’s policy change - which was announced this week - should apply to people across the country.
The program created by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will pay the mortgages of as many as 20,000 victims for as much as a year. U.S. officials have said that it could cost up to $200 million if all of the estimated 20,000 eligible homeowners apply. It was created to provide unprecedented relief in the wake of this fall’s devastating storms (Katrina, Rita, Wilma et al.). The program will offer aid to citizens who purchased homes with the aid of FHA mortgages in designated parts of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas.
In his letter to housing chief Jackson, Ney cited flooding last January in his rural Ohio district — an event that drew little attention nationally but nevertheless drove 7,000 people from their homes.
“While there can be no doubt that we must do everything we can to help those Gulf Coast states recover from the recent hurricanes, I do not want to lose sight that the flooding in eastern Ohio was equally as devastating for those families who lost homes and loved ones under very similar circumstances,” Ney said.
Facing increasing concern of additional natural disasters, lawmakers are angling for extended help to be given to farms affected by drought, and to flood protection projects in the Great Plains. A HUD spokesperson said Jackson had yet to receive the letter, but noted that there are several options available for FHA-insured homes damaged by natural disasters.
Ney, the chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee that oversees HUD and public and private housing, plans to convene his panel Thursday to hold the first in a series of hearings on the federal response to housing issues in the wake of 2005’s hurricanes. Clearly, from the plights of displaced Gulf Coast homeowners with Mississippi, Alabama and Florida home loan payments coming due, to those adversely impacted by flooding in Ohio, local and national committees have their work cut out in the coming months.
