Press Releases

Congressman Garret Graves (R – Baton Rouge) today announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is awarding nearly 130 million dollars in federal grants for the State of Louisiana’s Shelter at Home program.

“We have been pushing the concept of the Shelter at Home Program because it has the potential to be a more effective alternative to other post-disaster temporary housing programs,” said Graves. “Instead of spending the tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars on hotels, trailers and other temporary housing setups, Shelter at Home is supposed to invest directly into the rebuilding of damaged homes, which is more complementary of long-term recovery.”

This announcement comes a week after Rep. Graves sent a letter urging FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate to address some concerns over the program’s structure that Graves explained.

Graves went on, “I continue to have concerns that the program is operating with structural waste and too many layers of bureaucracy. FEMA’s funding announcement today – more than 26% of which is set aside for “Program Management” ($ 34,011,450) – reinforces my concern. Let’s put as much of this money into the hands of folks who can get the work done quickly and efficiently, like our do-it-yourself homeowners, other contractors or licensed recovery organizations still on the ground.

We’re going to continue to work with FEMA and state officials to maximize the potential of this program and empower our citizens to jump to start these individual and community-wide recovery efforts.”

Details about today’s funding announcement can be found here.