The Citizens' Road Home Action Team is a group of citizens from New Orleans neighborhoods, advocates ways to make the Road Home program more efficient and fair.

CHAT is all-volunteer and cannot take on individual Road Home Cases, but it does advocate on behalf of all Road Home applicants by collecting stories of the problems applicants are facing and presenting them to the LRA.

*Please read on below and find out how you can help CHAT further its cause and improve the Road Home program.*

Visit CHAT's website here.

• CHAT helped to obtain faster rates of closings (distribution of awards) though dialogue with RHP officials and media appearances.
• CHAT was responsible for getting approval of the right of applicants to dispute the amount of their award while accepting the amount that the RHP offers, avoiding the need to wait for the process to be completed to obtain funding.
• CHAT convinced the Road Home to publicly post the policies and rules for grant awards.
• CHAT proposed and convinced the LRA Board to endorse a homeowners' Bill of Road Home Rights.
• CHAT was a major influence in removing the requirement that the applicant be present during housing site evaluation in cases of homes that are more than 50% damaged.
• CHAT proposed to federal officials that the SBA be willing to extend its two-year deadline for homeowners on a case by case basis so that delays in homeowners receiving their RHP grants won't result in SBA defaults.
• CHAT influenced the Road Home to accept homeowner-provided Louisiana certified-licensed appraisals of pre-storm value.
• CHAT fought for and got the right of applicants to be informed of all Road Home decisions in writing and to be sent in writing the information from their file used to determine homeowners' awards so they can determine if there was an error or reason to appeal.

One of the most important tools CHAT uses to advocate on behalf of homeowners for improvements in the Road Home program is a survey designed to obtain feedback from homeowners about their experiences with the program. Click here to take the survey.

Add your support to the cause of homeowners' rights. Sign up to receive the CHAT newsletter here.