Road Home seldom leading out of state

Unlike most Arabi homeowners displaced by the 2005 hurricanes, John and Diane Johnson don't face the stress of rebuilding their destroyed property during an interminable wait for state aid.

The Johnsons are among a small proportion of Road Home applicants who have simplified their lives by choosing the program's buyout option, meaning they will turn over their destroyed property to the state for the same amount of money they would have gotten to fix it. Unlike the vast majority of Road Home applicants who plan to fix their destroyed properties, those choosing the buyout can use the award to pay off mortgages and buy new homes.

"This is doing exactly what it's supposed to do; it's almost making me whole," said John Johnson, who retired from BellSouth after Katrina and has since bought a home between Mandeville and Madisonville. Johnson, like almost all other applicants, hasn't yet secured his grant, which he said would be about $54,000. But he's financially well-off enough to have moved on without it, for now. Also like almost all applicants -- and to the delight of Road Home officials -- he's staying in Louisiana.

from the Times Picayune