FEMA ordered to stop collection efforts

By Natalie Chandler
natalie.chandler@clarionledger.com
Clarion-Ledger
June 19, 2007

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"(FEMA) will send a letter out that says, 'We've determined you're ineligible for the money you received.' And that doesn't tell you anything," said Crystal Utley, an attorney with Mississippi Center for Justice. "And they're not telling people they may be eligible for a hardship waiver. And when people ask for a waiver, they ignore their request."

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Ocean Springs resident Leslie Keller said she cannot afford to repay the $2,500 she was given for rental assistance. She said FEMA originally told her she didn't qualify for the money because she was living in a FEMA trailer. But because she was still paying a mortgage on her destroyed home, she said, FEMA relented.

"Then six months later, they said I had to give it back," said Keller, a 45-year-old mother of three who attends school during the day and works at night.

"I can understand going after the ones that fraudulently (received money)," she said. "But as far as the people who accepted aid and then FEMA says it's the wrong type of aid, it's not right."
FEMA has provided $1.23 billion in aid to Mississippi since Katrina struck.

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Read the rest of the article in the Clarion Ledger, daily newspaper in Jackson, Miss., the state’s capitol.