DECEMBER MONTHLY REPORT

Changes are in the air. We have said good bye to Amanda, our part time case manger, although we still allow her to share office space as she continues her work with The Empowerment Alliance of South West Florida. In addition, our Executive Director has gone to part time also working part time for The United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades. Our meeting our now on the 4th Thursday of the month and will likely be moving to quarterly meetings in March.
Beginning January 1st, our Executive Director will be working ½ time for CREW and ½ time for United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades Counties. We should not need a full time director, unless another major storm were to cause major damage to our counties again, at which time we will reevaluate need.

We have demonstrated continual efforts to help FEMA (Florida Emergency Management Association) through our VFF (Volunteer Florida Foundation) grant (which ended at the end of year). The cases detail where the problems are, some are due to a long wait for inspections, some are due to failure to comply on the part of the families, some are awaiting titles and paperwork from FEMA, and some are due to the long process of applying for funding through the American Red Cross and others. It should be noted that our list is considerably longer than FEMA’s list, as we are working with families who purchased trailers on non-conforming lots (not though CREW), especially within the City of Clewiston. We are still awaiting payment on three cases from the City of Clewiston. One of the issues we are running into is that the client hears from us that the trailers cannot stay in the parks where they are, however the park owners are assuring them that they do not have to move. One of the greatest challenges of this grant was the shear amount of time we had to spend on conference calls and in meetings with FEMA, as well as the intense and detailed information needed for cases to be approved for funding. Clients have to prove that they truly need the money by showing income and expenses, and many are referred to Credit Counseling through our partnership with The Empowerment Alliance of South West Florida as a result. The paperwork related to all these processes is quite intensive.

Although we still work with The Empowerment Alliance of South West Florida, and offer space to one of their employees, we are, as of December 31st, no longer sharing a staff member with them, as our funding has run out.

The partnership between Means to Recovery (Red Cross) has come to a close. We have directly assisted 23 of clients for a total of $172,192.40 and we have 4 pending applications in the approval process in the amount of $36,500.00. Only one of which was not a FEMA (Florida Emergency Management Association) client. These checks come to CREW to verify that the contractors had done the work, before we could give the checks to the contractor. In addition, CREW had to do a great of work taking 5-10 hours a client on case management work in order to complete applications, submit them, and follow up on their progress, hire the contactors, get the check and deliver checks to the contractors after ensuring work was done adequately. In addition, we received $95,923.73 total from VFF (Volunteer Florida Foundation) for staff to manage these clients and for $69,000 direct service from the dame agency. We were offered up to $30,000 from the City of Clewiston for city residents for this program as well, and we have managed to only need and formally request $19,959.50 thanks to our case management and ability to use $769,000 VFF (Volunteer Florida Foundation) and over $200,000 of direct services through Means to Recovery Funds for some of the city residents.

Since March, C.R.E.W. has been working with FEMA, Hendry County, and the City of Clewiston to find suitable housing solutions for FEMA clients still housed in FEMA units as of April 24, 2004. Originally, FEMA gave C.R.E.W. a list of 65 families whom FEMA believed would be in need of additional assistance. Additionally, the city of Clewiston supplied a list of approximately 20 other families residing in FEMA mobile homes on non conforming lots inside Clewiston City Limits. Of these cases, C.R.E.W. was able to help the majority of these families find permanent housing solutions.

Hendry County is unique in that it is small, rural and has few conforming mobile home lots. Over 90% of the mobile home lots available in Hendry County are located on a flood plane. FEMA will not set up a mobile home on a flood plan. Therefore, the majority of the families who participated in the FEMA modified sales program had to find money to pay for the set up, tie down, permit fees, skirting, stairs and connection of all utilities in order to make their mobile home livable. Furthermore, for permitting issues, families were required various surveys depending on the lot to which the mobile was going. Because of lack of competition among licensed contractors and Clewiston’s location, the fees for the above mentioned services are higher than in other areas, costing on average $9000 to set up the mobile home. To add to complications, Hendry County has a lack of industry that could help support the financial needs of community members. Thus, for C.R.E.W. the FEMA close out project has been very unique and expensive as compared to other counties in the state.

When helping family reach final recovery and independence, the first step was to search for funding. Throughout the course of the project, C.R.E.W. was leveraged funding in excess of $250,000 from the Volunteer Florida Foundation, The American Red Cross and other local funders in our community. This money was used specifically for direct services provided to our clients. Once funding had been attained, C.R.E.W. ran into another obstacle, permitting. At the beginning of this project, a new code inspector began employment with Hendry County. This led to delays in the permitting system. Then half way through the project, the individual resigned, and for a while Hendry County had no inspector. However, the county was able to make arrangements with Glades county to have permits issued. Currently, it takes approximately one to two weeks to receive a permit in Hendry County. This is a great improvement over the three months that it took for the first permits applied for to be issued.

Finally, there have been issues with the FEMA contractor’s schedules. Once the permits have been issued, C.R.E.W. families are at the mercy of the schedule of the FEMA contractors as all trailers have to be moved by FEMA contractors. For as many trailers that have been delivered as scheduled, we have the same amount that were not. However, most trailers are being delivered in a timely manner currently. Once trailers are delivered, it takes the contractors who are working with C.R.E.W. about one week to set up the trailer. Depending on the schedule of the county inspectors issuing the Certificate of Occupancy, families are waiting approximately one week to a week and a half to move into their mobile homes if not issues arise.

Of our clients, two cases were closed because of the families’ failure to comply with their service plan. For the other families, C.R.E.W. was able to find a funding plan that would cover the cost of fully setting the mobile home to county code – with the exception of one family. For the one family who does not have a funding plan, C.R.E.W. had planned on using money from the City of Clewiston; however, the funding fell through at the last minute. C.R.E.W. is committed to continuing to work with this family to find alternate funding for this family. C.R.E.W. was also able to work with a local contactor who was willing to begin the permitting process so that the client would not be dropped from the FEMA modified sales program.

It was the hope of FEMA to have all trailers set and families in their new mobile homes by Christmas. However, due to amount of time involved in the entire set up process, the lack of contractors that can set up the mobile homes and the schedules of the FEMA contractors, this is logistically not possible. However, all of the mobiles were delivered by Christmas. C.R.E.W. is following our families into the New Year as our contractors continue to work diligently to set up these mobile homes as quickly as possible. At this point, it is realistic to believe that all FEMA mobile homes will be set and families will be in their mobile homes by the end of January 2008.

Our construction coordinator has assessed 13 jobs (all in Hendry). He assisted two volunteer groups with getting the supplies they needed. They repaired a roof, a sub floor, replaced wiring for an electric stove (previously gas), and cleanup debris at two clients homes. One volunteer group donated a $55.00 belt sander to complete one of the jobs. The total cost of the projects was $805.00.

This report reflects the volunteers from December 1, 2007 thru December 31, 2007.
On December 2, 2007 thru December 7, 2007 Unity Hill United Church of Christ sent 2 gentlemen to work on 3 projects. They did a roof repair for J. F., repaired sub floor for I. F. and wired an electric stove for M. H. The two stayed at Community Presbyterian Church of Clewiston. The two gentlemen came all the way from Connecticut to help with these repairs. They contributed 80 hours of work that equals to $1500.00 of in kind dollars. The First United Methodist Church fed them on Wednesday night, and The Community Presbyterian Church fed them Thursday night, the Executive Director had them for dinner with her family at her home one night as well. On December 15, 2007 a group of 7 volunteers from Memorial Methodist Church in Lake Placid came and worked cleaning up debris at e. Brewer and P. Barton’s homes. This group consisted of 2 women and 5 men; they contributed 24.5 hours of work that equals to $459.38 of in kind dollars. This group is planning another trip with some of the youth at their church. They want to come and pressure clean and paint Ms. Brewer’s home. They will be supplying the pressure washer and the paint. We received a donation from Lifestyles Shutter Systems (They are one the contractors we use for our Mitigation program) for one of our clients, with an in kind value of $2500.00. We also had our LTRO meeting on December 19, 2007 where we had 2 of our members who are volunteers donate an hour of their time. All of our volunteers this month were Caucasian, 1 female age 20-25, 1 male and 3 females age 26-60, and 6 males over the age of 61.

Total volunteer hours donated: 106.5 Total In Kind donations: $1996.88

There is a group from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church from Gaithersburg, MD returning soon. They are in the process of finalizing their plans and will contact me when they have the dates. We are getting things together for the rebuild for Ms. Hopper. As of today we have 2 groups committed to helping with the process. One group from Manassas St. Thomas United Methodist Church in Virginia will be here February 24, 2007 thru February 29, 2007.
The other group committed to coming is St. Lukes Lutheran Church returning from Washington State. We are still trying to recruit groups to help get this completed by the end of March, as well as find funders for it.

As of December 31st in Hendry County 107 cases have been assigned to case managers and 98 of these have an updated recovery plan completed, 7 of these cases are pending documentation for completion of recovery plans. In Glades County, 12 cases have been assigned to case managers and 7 of these have updated recovery plans completed, 5 of these cases are pending documentation for completion of recovery plans. In December 14 cases have been closed in Hendry County. With all clients needs being met or clients refusal of services. In December 0 cases in Glades County have been closed. There are no unassigned cases.

This department currently has 3 full time and 1 half time case managers funded by UMCOR that are reviewing case information. Case managers are contacting clients to get needed documentation quickly. They are also helping with contacting clients for the Mitigation Program on a weekly basis. We were sad to loose one of our half time case managers this month; Amanda who was has been with CREW longer than any of our current employees. We also said Good bye to Edie, who had run the VFF Close out Program.

In the month of December there has been a total 6 new applicants for mitigation. Only 3 have been entered into the Hurricane Relief Database and 3 are awaiting completion of paperwork. There are 87 clients entered in the Hurricane Relief Database and 13 are needed to complete the contract amount. For the months of October and November a total of 47 inspection reports have been received. The 47 clients that have received inspection report have been divided between two contractors, Alufab Hurricane Shutters and CAT 5 Hurricane Products. Mitigation for the clients given to these contractors is expected to be completed January 31, 2008. 30 clients are still awaiting inspection reports. CREW’s contract with VFF expires on December 31, 2007. As of December 20, 2007 CREW received an extension until March 31, 2008 to complete 100 homes in the Hendry and Glades County areas. CREW will continue in its effort to mitigate 100 or more homes. There will be a continued effort to reach clients by advertisement by flyers as well as going from door to door in the communities of Hendry and Glades Counties. S.H.I.P. Coordinator Aida Barnhart of Hendry County has continued in her effort to gain clients for Mitigation. Our Mitigation program will not be extended after March. We can reapply for a new grant in March which would then not begin till July.

Our bank account balance as of 12/31/07 was $137,027.30. In the month of December, we received $17,236.60 in grants and donations. We spent $850 in Accounting, $10,480 on Contractors, $269.80 on licenses, $589.00 on mileage, $38.51 on office supplies, $18,425 on payroll, $1409.57 on payroll expenses, $27.15 on postage, $278.72 on telephone, and $549.61 on work team expenses. We spent $19, 323.25 in CRWRC and have $30,676.75 remaining. The VFF, FEMA account shows a negative $25,845.12, balance which we are awaiting a reimbursement check for. Our Gala account show a balance of $5,358.13 which needs to be moved over to the general account. We have $1132.83 in the general fund. The Lutherans account has a -$1995.47. This needs to be zeroed out with NFL account which has $14,529.35 and closed. The Mitigation program has $14,590.63. Our PDA account has $3,821.65. The Rotary account has -$2,795.00, we are expecting a check for $6,000 to replenish this account. Our UMCOR account has $24,319.68 left in the Clewiston account, $36,035.26 in the Moorehaven account.

Looking ahead, we are raising money to do a rebuild in February. We are also applying for grants including Hurricane awareness grants. We are planning a fundraiser in April. We are still awaiting response from grant requests to PDA and Lutherans.
We are currently in need of a shredder that can handle the amount of shredding necessary to keep our clients information confidential. A lap top would also be extremely helpful for the executive director due to the large amount of work she takes home and would allow her to not have to continue to use her personal computer for work.