9/5/2023 0 Comments Mike shroud net worthAn IEM spokesperson denied this, as well as many of the agency’s other criticisms. Neither IEM’s staff nor its software was ready, state officials would later say. Once the Pennsylvania Homeowner Assistance Fund launched in February 2022, thousands of applications flooded in. They settled on Innovative Emergency Management Inc., a company with years of experience overseeing state disaster relief efforts. Concerned that this would overwhelm the agency’s other operations, officials decided to hire a contractor. State lawmakers put PHFA in charge of distributing the aid. Pennsylvania received $350 million from the federal government to help homeowners recover from the pandemic. The problems began before the program even opened. Flushing the toilet only every few days, after filling it from gallon jugs of water. As the weeks passed, he settled into an uneasy new routine. In the first days after the shutoff, he kept going to turn on the tap. But as the water remained off, he fell into despair. When he felt angry, or dismissed, during these calls, Ramsey tried to remember that the person on the other end of the phone was having the same conversation over and over, that their hands were tied, that other people, he thought, probably had it a lot worse. Program workers kept telling him: We’re still transferring the data. Wait for the email to register in the new system. Please be patient. Ramsey kept sending emails and calling the help desk, but his application didn’t seem to move. Left with few concrete answers and no sense of how much longer they will have to wait, many homeowners like Ramsey feel betrayed by a program that seemed to offer a lifeline but has often felt more like false hope. Registering mortgage and utility companies in the new system has also been time-consuming, he said. In a statement, PHFA spokesperson Scott Elliott acknowledged that the transition “took longer than anticipated,” but said the agency had to ensure the information it received from the contractor was accurate. The pause bought PHFA time to resolve the backlog, but cut off homeowners who would otherwise qualify for help. The program stopped accepting new applications in February, with only a few days’ notice. PHFA doesn’t always have a clear picture of who is most in need, compromising its ability to prioritize the most at-risk homeowners. Some homeowners found that ongoing mortgage payments the program had promised to cover stopped without warning, and were sent into a panic over how to handle bills the state had already said it would pay. As of late July, almost 9,500 applications had been registered, but only about 900 had been fully paid out. Even fewer have actually received assistance. Most homeowners who have successfully signed up for the new system still haven’t had their applications reviewed. As a result, thousands of homeowners, many of whom have already waited months for help, are still in limbo. By late July, however, only about half the applications had been registered, partly because of widespread confusion over the process. Many homeowners are no closer to receiving aid than they were at the start of the year.Īmong the findings of Spotlight PA’s follow-up investigation:ĭue to legal requirements, homeowners with pending applications must register in the new system before they can get help. In June, PHFA Executive Director Robin Wiessmann told state lawmakers during a committee meeting that she was “very comfortable” that wait times were dropping once applicants were registered in the new system and “very confident about where the agency currently is.”įour months after the state took over, however, problems persist, the transition has in some cases created new ones, and the agency has barely made a dent in the backlog. The program had promised to prioritize the applicants in “greatest need,” including those at risk of having their utilities turned off, and wouldn’t that include him? But his water had been shut off in early March and it was now the last week of April. Ramsey had already received help with his property taxes and electric bill, he explained in the email. Officials anticipated the transfer would be finished in a matter of weeks. Some cases were missing crucial information, which had to be entered by hand. The agency had to move more than 18,000 case files from the contractor’s software into a new system.
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