Just Plain Reee-diculous!

It's been over two years. Believe it or not, mucho (in my humble opinion) federal buckos were allocated and actually sent to the state of Texas, where it's been languishing in some state coffer while state bureaucrats whine and moan and groan that $500 million isn't enough money. Reeeeeee-diculous!

Since the money arrived in the state ONLY THIRTEEN families have had their homes repaired. And people have been bitching about the way that federal monies have been spent in Louisiana? Shoot ... Louisiana has managed to spend much more than Texas has in the same two year period.

According to the article in the Houston Chronicle, 4,000 families had applied for the assistance, and my guess is that, for the most part, they are probably among the neediest of the needy. True, there's always a huckster around to manipulate the system, but there's just no excuse for that $500 million to be lolling around while so many people are living in homes with blue-tarped roofs and damage which is only getting worse with each rainstorm that comes through town. Damage which could have been healed at a fairly minimum now has become major renovation for many of those who've waited this long for repairs.

What is their problem? Sure, I want to make sure that it goes to legitimate recovery projects. But do they have to reinvent the wheel themselves?! There are organizations in the area whose reason for being is to ensure that the neediest are the ones who reap the benefit of the limited money that has been released for hurricane repair. They already have lists with priorities and ways to maximize the funds which are received through volunteer labor and donated or low-cost materials to help along the way.

Is there some kind of invisible restriction which requires that the funds be spent to pay contractors, and only contractors, to complete the work? Shouldn't the state be working with local programs to make the most of the money we have received? Why just sit and moan and groan that "we didn't get the kind of money that other states did", when what we have could be actually HELPING AND HEALING families?

To only allow a trickle of funds to be released when at least a small spate is available is absolutely unconscionable!

I'd suggest that we get some buses and cars together, fill them up with people whose homes need repairs from Hurricane Rita, and caravan to Austin to camp out on the Capitol steps. But wait! These people have already been "camping out" for over two years! Maybe instead, we ought to make plans to show up on the doorstep of Michael Gerber, executive director of the Texas Housing and Community Affairs, come Thanksgiving morning. I wonder if something would happen if suddenly 4,000 displaced families became real people instead of numbers on a page.

Nah! With this crew in charge?! Probably not!