State officials are ramping up efforts to boost participation in the flood recovery survey. Pat Forbes with the Office of Community Development says they started with emails and phone calls and moved on to PSA’s and billboards.

He says now they’re taking the survey to the ground level and going door to door.

“We have the advantage of knowing where the people are who have not signed up, and so we can go straight to them and make sure that they’re aware the program is available to them,” Forbes said.

The survey is the first step for flood victims to receive federal flood recovery dollars. Forbes says flood victims need to complete the survey to see if they’re eligible for the state’s homeowner assistance program. He says enrollment isn’t moving as quickly as they’d hoped.

“We’re at about 31,500 right now, and we know there are probably close to 20,000 families out there that have not completed the survey who would be eligible for our program,” Forbes said.

Forbes says flood victims don’t need any documentation to complete the five to ten minute survey. He says some people have not complete the survey because they don’t think they will qualify, but he says a lot more people will qualify than think they will.

“If they’ve already finished building, they can still qualify. If they are not low to moderate income, they can still qualify. Now even if they have flood insurance, they might still qualify,” Forbes said.

The survey can be found online at restore.la.gov.

 

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