For flood victims-Shelter at Home may not apply to thousands because of quirk in program

Louisiana's Shelter at Home program is a key component of the housing recovery plan for flood victims, but it may not apply to potentially thousands of people because mobile homes are automatically excluded. The quirk in the program has prompted angry calls to state lawmakers and others in recent weeks as the program, which provides up to $15,000 for homeowners to be able to quickly get back into their flood-damaged homes, begins to ramp up. "I've watched people repair manufactured homes," said state Sen. Bodi White, a Central Republican who is running for mayor of Baton Rouge. "I don't buy that you can't repair them or do a good bit of work on them. "It seems unreasonable to me," he added. Shelter at Home, which the state is already preparing to spend at least $400 million in mostly federal money on, allows homeowners to get basic repairs – drywall replacing, bathroom repairs, gutting and other work – done so that they don't need housing elsewhere in an already crunched housing market following the floods that left 13 people dead and thousands displaced. Livingston Parish had at least 11,000 mobile homes before the floods, and Ascension had more than 7,000. Both are among the hardest-hit parishes from the recent floods. It's unclear exactly how many of those homes and homes in the other parishes affected by the flood suffered damage. Leaders have estimated that more than 100,000 homes across South Louisiana were affected by the floods.