LOUISVILLE — So far, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has taken in more than $24 million in cash donations for Hurricane Katrina relief and $112,000 in donated materials.
It has distributed 18,160 “immediate response kits” worth $340,000
It has provided 91,776 volunteer days of service — volunteers who repaired 3,380 homes and rebuilt 565 houses. More than 31,350 volunteers have come to help.
But with an emphasis on being around to help for the long haul, sticking around to provide assistance after others may have gone home, it so far has spent only about $12 million, roughly half of what’s been given. And that has some members of the General Assembly Council worried.
Many people who gave to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance “thought it was gone already” — that the Katrina relief money had been spent, said Carol Hylkema, a council member from Michigan who spent several weeks, with her husband, doing relief work along the Gulf Coast.
“I’m sort of struggling with how we can still have half of that money (left) after two years,” Hylkema said, during a discussion of the Katrina funding Sept. 20, during a committee meeting at the council’s fall gathering.
Sara Lisherness, director of Peace and Justice ministries for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), explained that there are several reasons why the money hasn’t been spent faster. They are related in part to the PC(USA)’s commitment to sticking with the rebuilding effort long-term.
“It doesn’t cost us as much to muck out as to rebuild,” and the mucking out of homes came first, Lisherness said. Early on, resources were available from other sources — including the government and insurance companies — and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance wanted to make sure people made use of those first “so we can stretch our dollars further,” she said.
It wanted to create a good case management system, so the money would be spent in ways that were helpful and provided accountability.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance set up five “volunteer villages” in Mississippi and Louisiana, with a sixth scheduled to open in New Orleans on Oct. 1. The agency has developed a national response team of more than 40 volunteers with expertise in disaster response.
And with Florida and the Gulf Coast being swiped by a series of hurricanes even before Katrina, moving faster might not have been possible, some say.
Frank Adams, a council member from Pensacola, said people in Florida are still recovering from being smacked by hurricanes Ivan, Charlie, and Frances. People in some of those communities are still rebuilding, and “the ability for the trades (people) to be available to do any work anywhere is in very short supply,” Adams said. “My gosh, trying to find sheet rock and shingles was an amazing thing.”
Conrad Rocha, a council member from Albuquerque, said he appreciates that, but he worries what donors will think. In the last two years, “there’s been huge criticism by the public about the ineptness and the mishandling of funds” by the government and some other groups involved in the Katrina response, Rocha said.
A lot of people gave money to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance expecting the money to be promptly spent. There may be good reasons why Presbyterian Disaster Assistance hasn’t spent the money yet, Rocha said, but “that has not been communicated to our folk” who gave the money.
He’s heard people say, “There’s a pot of money the PC(USA) is sitting on. What are they doing, and why are they doing it?”
So “we need to say why we haven’t spent it,” and give the reasons why. “We need to get that word out. Otherwise we’re going to ruin our reputation. We’re going to get bundled in with all these inept folk,” Rocha said.
Lisherness reiterated that there are good reasons why the money hasn’t spent more quickly — in part because the PC(USA) is committed to having a long-term presence in Katrina relief, to let people know they have not been forgotten.
In New Orleans, people have said, “FEMA abandoned us. The government abandoned us. Thank God for the church,” Lisherness said. “We are being thoughtful in how we spend down these funds. We do want to be transparent.”
