Disaster Assistance by Louisiana Governors Get a Game Plan using Communications Obscurity to limit assistance
How Louisiana makes its Get a Game Plan nearly impossible for the people living in the state to understand where to get disaster recovery assistance. With every new storm, new websites are created and now they are creating compartmental websites.
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By Murray Wennerlund published 10-4-2021 updated 1-15-2022

Updated: The state of Louisiana has updated their rental assistance program for COVID-19 CARES ACT. 
The website is erap.lacovidhousing.com . Similar sounding and functions as the original lacovidhousing.com website but different in that it was updated 8 hours ago. Be sure to check to make sure your application is being processed. Obscurity practices by the State of Louisiana Housing Assistance department. 

Updated: Louisiana Homeowner Assistance Fund, For Louisiana homeowners seeking financial assistance with mortgage payments due to COVID-19. This free, federal program may be able to help. Mortgage Assistance has another page to bookmark: haf.lacovidhousing.com
The actual mortgage assistance application page is located here: client.lacovidhousing.com .

You can also find overlapping material at www.lhcdisasterresponse.com which is specific to Hurricane IDA.

These programs are administered by the Louisiana Office of Community Development.
You can find their contact information at the states website DOA.LA.Gov/ DOA/ OCD

Disaster Assistance by Louisiana Get a Game Plan using Communications Obscurity to limit response.

The state of Louisiana has a long track record of no less than 11 years of making disaster recovery different each and every disaster as well as making it harder to find the services offered by the Federal Government and administrated by the state.

Let's start with the Administrative Fees the state is paid to administer disaster recovery programs. Between 5 percent and 6 percent of billions in disaster assistance. A typical declared disaster will net the state $55 million for one department with 110 employees. The extra funds ends up in the states general fund to balance the books.

Communications Obscurity is when the state follows federal policies about making a website to provide information to the population. But Louisiana goes beyond a single website. The state now makes up different websites for nearly every program the federal government offers.

Example: Parish and City officials looking for debris pickup need to register for their PA grants (unsecured site) LouisianaPA.Com http://louisianapa.com/ .

Parish and city officials looking for FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) have to visit a website called, (unsecured site) LouisianaHM.com http://louisianahm.com/ .

You can find these links published at the Governors Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Recovery Grants Overview

If you need Mortgage Assistance "Louisiana Homeowner Assistance Fund program" located at https://www.lacovidhousing.com can help up to $10,000 from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The Office of Community Development is managing the program so be sure to ask about the HUD Mortgage Assistance program that offers 22 months up to $60,000 in mortgage payments if you lost your home due to a declared disaster.

If you need Rental Assistance browse over to the states "Emergency Rental Assistance Program" website that you might never have guessed LAStateRent.Com https://www.lastaterent.com/

Once you are ready you then are sent to yet another website called LAStateRent-Portal.Com to login https://lastaterent-portal.com/login .

Now, if you live in any of the following parishes or cities you have different websites to use.

Caddo, Calcasieu, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, Lafayette, Orleans or St. Tammany Parish

Next the state of Louisiana offers "Temporary State Sheltering Program Option Offering Travel Trailers to Some Families Affected by Hurricane Ida" and unless you are good at guessing what the state will use for a domain name to have you sign up you might never find the site unless you read the press release. The website is called "Ida Sheltering LA" https://idashelteringla.com/en-US/ and really doesn't work very well on mobile devices but the desktop site is fine.

When you create a login you will be redirected to a profile page.

This is what you might see as of 10-4-2021 on that profile page. (Reads like a user forum or comment section.)

Please provide some information about yourself.

"The First Name and Last Name you provide will be displayed alongside any comments, forum posts, or ideas you make on the site.

The Email Address and Phone number are required but will not be displayed on the site.

Your Organization is required, and a Title is optional. They will be displayed with your comments and forum posts."

Never did get my email confirmation link, maybe next disaster.

I hope you understand what Louisiana does to make programs unavailable to it's citizens. You really have to follow state government agencies to understand where you need to go for different assistance. The one common thread is going to be the Office of Community Development Disaster Recovery Unit which manages the big federal dollar programs other than FEMA. FEMA will always be GOHSEP at the helm. But you will find their "Get a Game Plan" website is just as confusing as this article about other sites. The only website that is organized is the louisiana.gov site but that website doesn't always display all things about the current disaster.

Hope you enjoyed a live example of Government Obscurity to earn Administrative Fees without a logical game plan for communications.