FEMA Wants Over $300M in Katrina Aid Back

Martina Wiggins with her grandsons Joshua Porrazzo, 8, left, and Jarred Porrazzo, 7, talks to The Associated Press about FEMA fraud in Violet, La., Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006. In St. Bernard Parish, close to where Katrina made landfall south of New Orleans last August, the floodwaters rose above 20 feet, and white FEMA trailers are still parked outside almost every house. Residents there, like Wiggins told the same story: she said was denied aid because someone had already applied using her address. "They gave away the money too fast," Wiggins said bitterly. "A lot of people got money who didn't deserve it." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon - AP)

In St. Bernard Parish, close to where Katrina made landfall south of New Orleans, the floodwaters rose above 20 feet and white FEMA trailers are still parked outside almost every house. Residents there told the same story. Martina Wiggins, waiting for her grandchildren to arrive home from school, said she was denied aid because someone had already applied using her address.

"They gave away the money too fast," Wiggins said bitterly. "A lot of people got money who didn't deserve it."

People who were forced to flee their homes were eligible for a wide range of federal help, ranging from rental assistance to $2,000 debit cards that could be used to replace personal possessions and buy food. Household payments were capped at $26,000.

Under agency rule changes about three weeks after Katrina, FEMA officials decided some separated households could receive aid. These exceptions included adult roommates who were separated, extended families and some adults still living with their families who were forced to evacuate separately. The government considers a "household" to represent all the people _ related or otherwise _ who live in a housing unit such as a house, apartment or mobile home.

Still, advocates said thousands of people in separated homes were improperly denied aid or never heard about the rule change. Catherine Bendor of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty said a federal court ruling in June criticized FEMA for not giving enough information to people applying for aid. But coming nearly a year after the storm, she said, the ruling comes too late for the majority of people who needed help.

"The application of the rule has been uneven and arbitrary," she said. "It appears they were making decisions on a case-by-case basis. So it's caused a lot of frustration. There were a lot of individuals who never should have been denied assistance."

In some cases, FEMA is still trying to collect refunds from individuals who improperly received more than one grant or who were ineligible for assistance. But for people like Keshian Mitchell, a 17-year-old Katrina refugee living in a dismal apartment complex in west Houston, it's small comfort.

"They ain't no help now," said Mitchell, who didn't find her parents until six months after Katrina laid waste to New Orleans. "Nobody's getting any more help _ they already spent all the money."

Crystal Dixon, who lives near Mitchell, agreed. Dixon, 25, said she saw people bilk taxpayers while she fought for basic assistance to help feed and clothe her five children, ages 1 to 10.

She met one woman who had moved to Houston two years before the storm but kept her Louisiana driver's license. The woman, who had no children, got cash assistance before Dixon was helped, Dixon said.

"I try to understand how confused things got," said Dixon. Her children played outside and chattered excitedly about nearly falling off a roof into flood-swollen streets, being rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter and scrounging for food and water at the overcrowded Superdome. "But I thought everyone should have been treated equally."

Cedric Miller, a 34-year-old busboy at a New Orleans restaurant, said FEMA officials seemed to be reacting as best they could to the devastation. But Miller also said: "There was a lot of fraud going on. ... There was a whole lot of that going on. It was a big ol' way-drawn-out mess."

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Frank Bass reported this story from Washington, Houston and New Orleans. Michelle Roberts reported from New Orleans.

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On the Net:

Federal Emergency Management Agency: http://www.fema.gov