Hold For Release
10:00 a.m., Monday, August 27, 2007

For More Information Contact:
Derrick Johnson 601-624-7715

Report Calls for Accountability Regarding Billions of Dollars
in Katrina Recovery Funds Being Spent By State

JACKSON, Miss. — A briefing paper released today by Derrick Johnson, state president of Mississippi NAACP, notes that the state of Mississippi has been allocated $5.5 billion in federal dollars for Gulf Coast hurricane rebuilding. But, the report says, “No data has been made publicly available to assess the implementation of the program.”

The briefing paper entitled “The Accountability Gap: Unanswered Questions Two Years Later” (http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/irct/Second-year%20compendium%202.pdf; pp. 69-75) is being released with more than a dozen reports about various conditions along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi as part of an event commemorating the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

“Eighteen months after the governor’s public statements on hurricane spending accountability, public information is scarce and the reporting results are hollow. Subsequently, state implementation of programs targeted towards low-income people has been slow and uneven,” declared Johnson.

In addition, the report questions a state government contract worth $88 million to oversee and implement the state’s Homeowner Assistance Grant Program.

The report notes that “the absence of publicly available information to make the state accountable to its taxpaying residents has also contributed to a lack of public accountability for its primary contractor for hurricane recovery – the Reznick Group.”

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“The replacement of the rental stock remains crucial to a full recovery. With vacancy rates low, existing rents high and nominal recovery investments in the rental market relative to the need, a shortage of affordable workforce housing looks to be a challenge for many years to come,” says Johnson. “The presence of affordable workforce rental housing poses the quickest avenue for Gulf Coast renters living in FEMA trailers to move out of the trailer and into a more stable living arrangement.”

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