November's Monthly Report for CREW

NOVEMBER MONTHLY REPORT

We are getting ready to make a lot of changes, this is this last month we will have some of our current staff, and we will be losing more at the end of March. We are going to be changing some scheduling and changing our focus early next year as well, which will be a permanent change, unless another storm were to hurt our two rural counties.

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.

Our main focus has like last month has continues to be our continual efforts to help FEMA (Florida Emergency Management Association) through our VFF (Volunteer Florida Foundation) grant, which was supposed to close in October, however we have only 1 CREW case still unresolved, however there are less than 14 FEMA cases unresolved. VFF being as concerned as we are about these families, generously extended our grant through the end of the year, however it will not be extended again. 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 received a new longer list at the beginning of November from FEMA. 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. The city has sent them a letter and as a result, some are beginning to come in. One of the greatest challenges of this grant is the shear amount of time we have 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.
The American Red Cross Means to Recovery has been a great help to this program, helping 26 people, having paid $195.092.36. Only one of which was not a FEMA (Florida Emergency Management Association) client. In November alone we received $21,225.00 for our clients. 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 $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 $21,535.84 thanks to our case management and ability to use VFF(Volunteer Florida Foundation) and Means to Recovery Funds for some of the city residents. Through the Means to Recovery program we have $30,000 still pending.
This month we received 21 titles for trailers. 5 were delivered and the cases closed. Red Cross Means to Recovery Program is no long accepting application and the VFF program has no funds left for this program and will be shutting down staff as of the end of the year. There are 7 trailers that need to be moved and delivered. We are wing for final certificate of occupancy and titles to close these cases. Three trailers purchased through FEMA’s modified sales program have been set; two have received their certificate of occupancy and are awaiting inspection. One sale was cancelled as client moved out of Hendry County. ROAD will issue a refund and the case is closed. One case was closed due to client being non-compliant with their plan. Of the CREW/ROAD clients all but two have received funding or has a funding plan. Of those two, one is a park model in Clewiston and needs clarification as to where to move it. The other has ignored all attempts of our staff to contact. In regards to the funding plans, 2 of the original clients are awaiting money from the city (letter submitted to City Manager), all others have cash in hand.
Our construction coordinator has estimated 6 jobs (5 in Hendry and 1 in Glades). He assisted one volunteer group with getting the supplies they needed. They installed a fence, a new roof, removed siding, replaced rotted studs, replaced flooring, installed insulation, plywood under laminate, siding and trim, reinstall windows, skirting and sophist, installed front steps, replaced moldy drywall, damaged electrical plugs and switches, install cabinets, and repaired structural damaged to floors and walls. He reports that we spent $10,687 in materials on these jobs. He also picked up in kind donation of fence parts valued at $148.00, and a television valued at $50.00.

We have continued to be blessed with volunteers. On November 11, 2007 we were blessed with one of our returning groups from Manassas St. Thomas United Methodist Church. This group consisted of 2 volunteers who worked on 3 in depth projects while they were here. This group split into 2 groups, The A team (for the ants they had to avoid) and the B team (for the honey bee hive under the home for their project).The A team worked on replacing a fence for L. W. whose neighbors have pit bull dogs and she does not feel safe in her own backyard. The A team also worked on tearing off and replacing plywood, and shingles on the roof at E. B.’s home. The B Team was occupied with tearing off siding, replacing backboard with plywood and installing vinyl siding on a double wide mobile home for P. B’s. This group also had to replace some rotten wood on the framing prior to replacing the siding, they also replaced some damaged drywall inside the house. This group worked for the entire week and CREW hosted a BBQ luncheon for them to show our appreciation on Friday, November 16. One of the volunteers from this group stayed until Wednesday, November 21st to assist with another client who was in need of having damaged cabinets removed and replaced. When the damaged cabinets were removed we discovered that the flooring underneath needed to be replaced as well. The volunteer worked at M. H.’s Saturday the 17th through Tuesday the 20th replacing the flooring and cabinets. He then returned to P. B’s home to complete the drywall repairs inside her home. We received a donation from United Way/211 of an electric stove to replace the broken one at M. H’s home for an In-Kind value of $150.00. We also received a cash donation of $80.00 and an In- kind donation of some fencing material in the amount of $148.00 from Manassas St. Thomas United Methodist Church. We also had our LTRO meeting on November 14, 2007 where we had 3 of our members who are volunteers donate an hour of their time. Total volunteer hours donated: 938
Total In Kind donations: $17587.50

We have a group of 3 men coming from Unity Hill United Church of Christ coming the week of December 2, 2007 thru December 8, 2007. A group of 5 volunteers from Memorial Methodist Church from Lake Placid are coming on December 15, 2007.

Our current case load as of November 30th in Hendry County is 126 cases, all o of which have been assigned case managers and have updated recovery plans. In Glades counties there are 8 remaining, all of which have updated recovery plans as well. We closed 60 cases in November, all in Hendry County. We have 3full time and 2 half time case mangers; this department currently has 2 full time and 2 half time case managers 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 have 1 case manager who is reviewing and completing Means to Recovery Applications, writing reports and tracking our FEMA grant funds.

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.

Our mitigation program has done a great job of biding approved contractors against each other and finding ways to spend less money per home. In the month of November there has been a total of 11 new applicants for mitigation. All have been entered into the Hurricane Relief Database. CREW has mitigated 15 homes all in the Hendry county area. A total of 17 new inspection reports have been received. There are now 44 clients certified to receive mitigation. There are 44 clients awaiting contractor estimates. There are a total of 84 Clients entered in the Hurricane Relief Database. 16 more clients are needed to meet the contract total for 2007. CREW has received a reimbursement check from The Volunteer Florida Foundation in the amount of 43,592.62 for the Mitigation program. All 44 certified clients will be served by one of the 3 contractors that have given an estimate on installing shutters (Glades Roofing, Alufab Hurricane Shutters,& CAT 5 Hurricane Products). There has been 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. We will likely receive an extension on this program until our 100 homes are met. When RFPs are once again accepted we will apply for another 100.

Our bank account balance as of 11/30/07 was $201,321.40. According to our accountant, we have $31,203.33 in CRWRC funds, -$17,578.63 in FEMA funds (we are awaiting reimbursements on this), $5,358.13 in Gala that needs to be sent over to General, -$1995.47 in Lutherans, this needs to be zeroed out, perhaps by using gala funds, Mitigation has $17801.08, NFL has $14,529.35, this needs to be zeroed out and moved to general, PDA has $3357.66, Rotary has a negative amount, this needs to be zeroed out, funded by Gala funds, UMCOR Clewiston has $33,923.99, UMCOR Moore haven has $36,035.26 and VFF3 is -$2713.09. These balance do not match what we have, therefore we are working to resolve these discrepancies and should have an answer within the week. Our CREW iGive statement shows that we raised $100.45 total, $73.14 of which has been disbursed to us.

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.