Informal "home" ownership - a cultural issue here in the south
An issue of duplicated benefits for the other "owners"

Kathleen Johnson is a long term full time volunteer who has been working in Waveland, Hancock County, Mississippi, since just after the onset of the storm. She currently operates her own disaster relief agency. Her fiscal arm is the Waveland Citizens Fund - a registered 501 (c) 3. Website: http://www.reliefvolunteers.com

May 7th, 2008

There was another client this week with no title to their home/land because it is tied up in a "family" estate - no formal home ownership but a consortium of family members none of whom will agree to sale of the property to one member or anyone else. The consortium will agree to let one family member re-build on the land and improve the land value for "everyone" on the land title. I have seen as many as 23 family members on one title. I have found more black clients with this issue than white. The problem is further reinforced when the long term recovery committee refuses to recognize the issue of Case Manager shopping when the client refuses to comply with recovery guidelines and clear title needs.

This status of the home ownership for this particular family is the same today as the status before the storm - a large disagreeing family consortium. It has created an issue in the recovery effort and we have retorted to requiring the families to resolve the ownership issue in most cases as there was no way to get the occupying part-owner grants as many of the other owners also had homes that were recipients of Katrina related grants and we did not want to get into the trough of duplicated benefits.

And when I carefully explained that to an owner yesterday, hoping that she would come to a resolution with the other family members - she responded by going to Hancock Housing Resource Center and complaining that we would not help her. Hancock Housing Resource Center then immediately referred the case to another agency (although the case was registered in CAN) without even calling to see what the issues were and trying to mediate the situation understanding that the client was "Case Manger" shopping hoping to get a better deal on the outcome - not on the services being offered.

The new agency then contacted us wanting us to transfer, immediately, the case. This agency has an enormous amount of Case Manager time tied up in dealing with this client who happens to be totally, and completely, illiterate. So it has been a very difficult case.

Case Manager shopping is problematic in this recovery effort. It is further enhanced when the long term recovery committee, in this case the Hancock Housing Resource Center, is reinforcing the practice, due to political stances that are not in the best interests of the residents or the hard working Case Mangers. These same Case Mangers have 25 hours minimum tied up in pulling a case together for presentation of grants tied to criteria set up by the Hancock Housing Resource center inclusive of the requirement that there be clear land titles and no duplication of benefits. More interesting that this client was immediately assigned a Case Manager when so many others have languished awaiting Case Mangers for a year or more at the Hancock Housing Resource Center.

Case Manger shopping needs to be dealt with as it is a huge resource drain on the already overloaded dwindling Case Manager Community. The issue of informal home ownership needs to be dealt with directly with a clear directive from the grant funders.

NPR just did a show on this exact subject matter:

No Title? No Easy Access to Post-Katrina Aid

by John Ydstie

NPR All Things Considered, April 28, 2008 ·

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90005954