For the first time, there's a plan to help families who rebuilt their homes and ended up with tainted Chinese drywall. Lawmakers, on Thursday, approved a program that would compensate homeowners and help with rental assistance. While it's a start, the plan does not include all victims of tainted Chinese drywall.
In the final hour of the state's legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that would implement an imported tainted drywall assistance program.
"What we're gonna try to do is try to get people compensation or some sort of replacement material for the Chinese drywall that was in their house," said Paul Rainwater, Executive Director for the Louisiana Recovery Authority.
The bill says the LRA will implement the program. It calls for at least $5 million of recovery money to be allocated for emergency rental assistance and another $50 million to assist families with tainted drywall.
The program, however, would not offer up assistance to all tainted Chinese drywall victims.
"Right now the way its gonna be written is that it's gonna have to be a Road Home applicant," said Rainwater.
Brandi Pilet, a resident of Chalmette, believes she has tainted Chinese drywall in her home, but she never received Road Home money. Under this plan, she wouldn't qualify for assistance. "It's like if you're fortunate enough to get it once, you get lucky you know the second time, and I didn't get it the first time and I'm not lucky to get it the second time now," said Pilet.
Rainwater said the plan is not a done deal. The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development has to approve it.
The LRA is working with the state's Dept. of Health and Hospitals to develop an action plan to present to HUD as well as the state's joint legislative budget committee.
Currently, the plan is in the infancy stage. Details on how consumers would get the assistance haven't been worked out.
