Press Release
National Trust Hails Federal Funds for Historic Homes on the Gulf Coast
Washington, D.C. (June 9, 2006) – Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation applauded House and Senate agreement on $40 million in grant funds to be administered by State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPO) to assist the owners of historic homes damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, and $3 million to help SHPOs with historic preservation reviews in the aftermath of the disasters. Congress is expected to pass the measure and send it to the President next week.
National Trust President Richard Moe, who has just returned from his seventh visit to the Gulf Coast since the hurricanes, and who has made assistance to owners of damaged historic properties on the Gulf Coast a top Trust priority, said the federal funds "will go a long way toward helping to restore the shotgun houses and Creole cottages that represent the heart and soul of New Orleans' historic neighborhoods, as well as the hundreds of significant houses on the Mississippi coast."
Moe praised Senators Thad Cochran (R-Miss) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) for their leadership in making the funds available in the supplemental appropriations bill. "Not for the first time," Moe said, "these two senators have recognized the importance of preserving our nation's heritage. In this case, their efforts have come in the wake of what is unquestionably the greatest cultural disaster in the nation's history. We are enormously grateful for their vision and their leadership."
The funds will provide grants to the owners of historic homes that suffered hurricane damage and will be administered by the state historic preservation officers (SHPOs) in the three affected states. The Trust and its local partners, the Mississippi Heritage Trust and the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, have been providing technical and sometimes financial assistance to owners of damaged historic homes and will continue to do so in cooperation with the respective SHPOs, Moe said.
The bill language states that all National Register or National Register-eligible properties in hurricane impacted areas will qualify for the funds, but the congressional conferees added that preference should be given to "properties located in National Heritage Areas, owner-occupied houses, and an ability to spend the funds expeditiously." There is additional language which mandates that no state may receive more than 65 percent of the grant funds. All of the money must be obligated by September 2007.
Moe said the appropriation of these funds has been the Trust's highest legislative priority and he thanked the SHPOs for helping to shape the aid package and other preservation partners, especially Main Street communities, for helping to seek its passage. He noted that federal funds for historic structures have been made available following virtually every other natural disaster in recent history, including the Midwest floods of 1993 and the Northridge earthquake of 1994.