Federally-funded home rebuilding programs in New Orleans are having trouble keeping up with the demand of grant applicants, and the governor has cautioned that the budget shortfall may be in the billions.
"More than 130,000 applications for aid have been submitted under the troubled, federally funded Road Home program - about 30 percent more than initially expected."
"Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Road Home officials now say they expect a shortfall of up to $3 billion, mostly because the grants that have been doled out for rebuilding so far are running much higher than originally projected."
"If the outstanding applicants receive grants about the size of those doled out so far, Road Home could be billions of dollars short of what it needs to process all the remaining applications, Blanco said."
FULL STORY: La. Recovery Program Is Running Short

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Rural Homelessness Could Be Vastly Underestimated, Study Finds
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
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