Approximately 7,000 evacuees stand to lose their housing as of August 31 unless the court acts. A press teleconference will occur at 1:00 pm EST: Dial 319-632-1100, Access Code 275632. A live press conference will be held 11:30 am CST at 2201 Hayes Rd. Apt #3916, Houston, TX—the home of a Katrina Survivor scheduled to lose assistance in two days.

The suit asserts that FEMA systematically fails to explain why benefits have been denied and what evacuees may do to fix any problems with their applications for continued housing assistance. Instead, FEMA sends form letters to evacuees that only contain a cryptic computer code or phrase that refers to a reason for each termination of benefits.

The suit alleges that the reasons for termination remain vague even after the computer codes have been deciphered, and that for a half-century, the Supreme Court has consistently required agencies to clearly explain their reasons for denial of benefits in time to allow affected individuals to appeal the agency’s decision.

Survivors of Katrina and Rita deserve this basic due process, the plaintiffs say.

 “Anyone with a $299 computer can mail-merge an explanatory paragraph into a form letter,” said Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorney Jerome Wesevich. “By using a computer code instead of the English language, FEMA has made what appears to be a deliberate choice to place barriers between desperate families and the housing that Congress said they should have.”

When evacuees call in response to a letter denying benefits, FEMA representatives strain to clearly state the reason for the termination. The process has forced evacuees to run in circles to obtain documents that may not even be needed, and some evacuees have even been given entirely different reasons for the denial when they call FEMA at a later time.

“We stand today with evacuees all across this country who have done everything within their power to put the pieces of their lives back together,” said ACORN representative Debra Campbell. Ms. Campbell is a leader of the ACORN Katrina Survivors Association that has over 5,000 members.

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