[Mb-civic] Two-Thirds of Katrina Donations Exhausted - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Two-Thirds of Katrina Donations Exhausted
Charities Faced With Difficult Decisions and Countless Requests as They 
Spend What Is Left

By Jacqueline L. Salmon and Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 27, 2006; A01

Six months after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast, 
charities have disbursed more than $2 billion of the record sums they 
raised for the storm's victims, leaving less than $1 billion for the 
monumental task of helping hundreds of thousands of storm victims 
rebuild their lives, according to a survey by The Washington Post.

Two-thirds of the $3.27 billion raised by private nonprofit 
organizations and tracked by The Post went to help evacuees and other 
Katrina victims with immediate needs -- cash, food and temporary 
shelter, medical care, tarps for damaged homes and school supplies for 
displaced children.

What's left, say charities and federal officials, will need to be 
stretched over years to rebuild lives and reconstruct the social fabric 
of the Gulf Coast -- from job training to mental health counseling to 
rebuilding the homes of the poor to reestablishing arts organizations 
and paying clergy as they wait for their congregations to return.

The Post survey, the first detailed examination of the largest 
outpouring of charity in the nation's history, also found the following:

· The American Red Cross, which was criticized for slow distribution of 
donations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has given out 84 
percent of its Katrina and Rita donations.

· 50 cents of each donated dollar went out in cash to victims.

· 6 percent of contributions came in the form of supplies -- building 
materials, food, water, clothing, heavy equipment -- donated mostly by 
corporations.

· 56 percent of remaining donations are controlled by faith-based 
organizations. They include such well-known institutions as Catholic 
Charities USA and the Salvation Army but also such lower-profile groups 
as the United Methodist Committee on Relief and United Jewish Communities.

What remains to be done goes well beyond even the staggering costs of 
rebuilding infrastructure -- projects estimated to require nearly $200 
billion in government aid over the long term.

"There are many, many needs that the federal government cannot cover," 
said Don Powell, a former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman who 
was named coordinator of the Gulf's long-term recovery by President Bush 
in November. Many are "the crucial part of life that we all depend on," 
he said. "It's not public works. It's not water, sewage or utilities. 
It's the soul of our life."

No one has put a price tag on restoring the "soul" of a region after 
such devastation, but the current charitable resources of about $960 
million, as calculated by The Post, will not be sufficient, Powell said.

The line between what the government pays for and what charities will 
cover is blurred. Even though many Gulf Coast residents are eligible for 
federal assistance for some housing costs, plenty of other residents 
will not qualify, say charities, who predict they'll have to pick up the 
slack.

Also, the law that governs federal spending after a disaster strictly 
limits how much can go to private entities -- places of worships and 
arts groups, mental health services, youth programs and child-care 
centers. The desolate fiscal situations in Mississippi and Louisiana 
leave those states in no position to cover what the feds cannot. Charity 
officials say their organizations will try to step into that breach.

For weeks after the storm, Americans and their employers poured hundreds 
of millions of dollars into charities, churches, synagogues and other 
religious organizations. Thousands of truckloads of supplies were sent 
to the Gulf Coast.

The speed of the charitable inflow after Katrina topped the torrid pace 
of donations after the Sept. 11 attacks, when donations hit the $1 
billion mark in six weeks and ultimately rose to $2.8 billion, according 
to Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.

Donations to Katrina, in contrast, hit $1 billion in three weeks.

Even so, Katrina presents far broader challenges -- simply because the 
money must be spread over so many more victims.

"Even if we doubled, tripled or quadrupled what we have, we still 
wouldn't be able to meet the need," said Gary Lundstrom, director of 
projects for Samaritan's Purse, which is rebuilding homes along the 
Mississippi coast and in Louisiana's ravaged St. Bernard Parish with 
much of its $34 million.

Despite the charitable outpouring, some victims feel shortchanged. And 
there is often a disconnect between the realities of how much has been 
contributed and the vastness of the need.

Johnnie and Hurley Smith clung to their bedroom skylight to survive 
Katrina after eight feet of water inundated their home in Biloxi, Miss. 
They got $1,000 from the Red Cross to use for daily expenses such as 
lodging and food, and $100 and a new mattress from the Salvation Army. 
They also ate Salvation Army and Red Cross meals, and their wrecked home 
was gutted by a church group.

Nevertheless, Johnnie Smith, 57, says she wishes a little more of the 
billions in donations had come her way.

"I should have been given more assistance," said Smith, a real estate 
agent who is still unable to work and needs therapy to deal with the 
trauma of Katrina. (Her husband, Hurley, is retired.) "There was a lot 
of money donated, and there is still a lot of money being donated."

Some small groups along the coast complain that the big charities are 
ignoring them.

Saving Our Selves Coalition, a grass-roots recovery group, relies on 
funds from smaller organizations and individuals.

"I would hope that the [big charities] won't move like our federal 
government is moving," said the group's founder, LaTosha Brown. "We're 
six months out, and people are still up in the air. The resources are 
not getting to the communities."

Charities are braced for hard decisions as they spend what is left. In 
December, 1,000 Gulf Coast ministers jammed into a New Orleans hotel 
ballroom for an agonizing debate over whether $20 million donated to 
faith organizations by the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund should be divided 
among many organizations or focused on a few.

Their decision: Rather than funding a "full dinner" for a limited number 
of groups, many organizations should receive a "sandwich," said the Rev. 
William Gray III, co-chairman of the fund's ministerial advisory committee.

Disillusioned by the sluggish government response to the storm, some 
nonprofit organizations are choosing to spend private dollars on 
projects that might otherwise be publicly funded.

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has hired planners and other consultants 
at a cost of $15 million to devise a blueprint for development in 
southern Louisiana, a task normally taken on by the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency. It also is spending $1.2 million on consultants to 
map out a regional health care system. The foundation has yet to raise 
all the needed cash, having exhausted the millions in relief funds it 
raised earlier.

"We can do it, and we can do it much better" than the federal 
government, said John Davies, chief executive of the foundation.

And many homeowners and renters are turning to nonprofit groups after 
failing to qualify for government aid.

"We've been swamped" with inquiries, said Ken Meinert, senior vice 
president for Habitat for Humanity's Operation Home Delivery project, 
which is rebuilding 1,000 houses along the coast with the $80 million it 
has raised. It hopes to raise additional money to build another 1,000 
residences.

Catholic Charities USA hopes to build 5,000 housing units for the poor 
in New Orleans, some of it on church-owned land, leveraging its money 
with loans and grants, said the Rev. Larry Snyder, the group's chief 
executive.

The group has so far disbursed $58 million of the $142 million it 
collected to 76 Catholic Charities agencies and other organizations in 
29 states for counseling, job placement and housing.

New Orleans resident Tyler Jones, 45, who lost everything in the storm, 
said Catholic Charities provided his family with medical care, money for 
clothes, counseling and other support to get their lives back on track. 
"They restored my faith and my hope by helping me," said Jones, a New 
Orleans sheriff's deputy.

In its survey, The Post identified 15 charities that collected the most 
money, based on a database from the Center on Philanthropy of 141 
charities raising money for hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

It asked for the amounts collected and how much has been disbursed. It 
also obtained breakdowns of how much had gone for short-term relief and 
amounts remaining for long-term recovery.

Some of that money is causing tension on the Gulf Coast.

Doctors struggling to rebuild practices are clashing with emergency 
clinics set up after the hurricane. The physicians say the free medical 
care is diverting paying patients from their practices.

For much the same reason, International Aid, a Michigan group that 
raised $50 million in cash and supplies, has stopped distributing food 
now that many grocery stores have reopened.

There comes a point, said the Rev. Myles Fish, the group's chief 
executive, when "you don't want to harm the local economy, so you've got 
to discontinue the free stuff."

Some charities that have focused on the more immediate needs of the 
storm's victims are winding down.

The American Red Cross announced earlier this month that it had received 
enough donations to cover the $2.1 billion cost of its operation and 
asked donors to give to other hurricane-relief groups.

It is, however, reserving $194 million for its local chapters for 
long-term recovery, it said.

Other groups focused on longer-term programs are just gearing up.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief, an arm of the United Methodist 
Church, hasn't completed its strategic plan for the $69.6 million it 
raised from church collection plates. The group also has a $60 million 
contract from FEMA.

UMCOR's plan will focus on "case management," assigning paid personnel 
and volunteers to help the neediest victims get back on their feet over 
the next four to six years, said Kristin Sachen, UMCOR's assistant 
general secretary, who oversees the group's relief efforts.

"It is slower," said Sachen of her group's efforts. "It is not emergency 
work. It is long-term recovery."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/26/AR2006022601383.html
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