For months, Barbara LeBlanc has been living on the second floor of her gutted New Orleans house, fixing dinner in what was her laundry room while waiting on a federal rebuilding grant she now fears may never come.

The state-run, federally funded Road Home program, which administers the grants, has so far only made funding committments to 60 percent of its applicants. Yet officials say the program is facing a potential $5 billion deficit. State lawmakers were told Monday that the amount of money promised to applicants so far is nearly $6.4 billion, outstripping the $6.2 billion the program has on hand.

LeBlanc is "panicked."

"I'm kind of obsessed with following it in the news, e-mailing politicians ... though I get no response," LeBlanc said Tuesday. LeBlanc, who works for Children's Hospital, said she applied for aid in October 2006 and is still awaiting word on whether she'll get any for her home in the hard-hit Lakeview neighborhood.

"Whoever I e-mail, the governor's office, politicians, it tends to be an exercise in futility."

Her concerns are shared by many in south Louisiana for whom the road back from hurricanes Katrina and Rita has been rocky -- and uncertain.

While Road Home was meant to help many homeowners rebuild, its management and the pace with which it has doled out grants have been widely criticized. The program, which began taking applications last August, about a year after Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, is administered under a contract by Virgina-based company, ICF International.

State and federal officials have swapped blame over why Road Home has gone bust, and who should fund the projected gap. The state says the program was underfunded because of inadequate storm damage estimates by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The funding pool was based on those estimates.

But White House hurricane recovery director Don Powell told a congressional committee that the state is handing out payments for damage that is excluded under federal guidelines.

Negotiations between the two continue. A congressional report on the program is expected next week. A spokeswoman for the state Office of Community Development said that state office, which oversees Road Home, is "extremely optimistic" additional funding will be provided to the program.

So far no one knows where the money will come from to cover the shortfall. Thousands of gutted homes stand throughout the city, and their future is uncertain if the Road Home goes broke.

The program has pledged nearly $6.4 billion to more than 85,000 homeowners. But as of Monday, the program had received nearly 145,000 applications and applications continue to pour in, at the rate of several hundred a day, ahead of a July 31 deadline, spokeswoman Gentry Brann said.

While not all applicants are necessarily eligible for aid, the program has already committed more than the $6.2 billion on hand. Brann said the state had "always implied" that grants would be based on available funds and benefit letters going out to applications make that point clear.

Melanie Ehrlich, founder of the activist Citizens' Road Home Action Team, said uncertainty about rebuilding aid, along with a hold on federal grants to help homeowners raise homes or otherwise build more safely, is resulting in Katrina victims being victimized again -- by the state and federal governments.

"It leaves the residents in the dark, and in their misery, because there's not enough information," she said.

That's how Joe Middleton feels. Nearly 22 months after Katrina, his house in the Gentilly area is still not gutted. He is waiting on Road Home funding to do the work and to begin renovating a one-story home with a yard he's been keeping up since the storm.

He says he had his first meeting with Road Home representatives in April and was disappointed.

"All they want to do is find out all your information: take your ... fingerprints, social security number," he said. "They didn't mention anything about money."

Middleton, who said he's retired from the construction business, said he's tired of fighting with state and federal recovery agencies. "It doesn't give you much time to do anything else."

Julius Jacobsen had a crew painting his flooded home in eastern New Orleans Monday. He's been rebuilding with loan and personal funds and has been told -- though he has received nothing yet in writing -- that he should receive about $45,000 from Road Home, he said.

He's not counting on it, though: "I've got no faith in them whatsoever," he said, referring to federal, state and local agencies he believes have done little, so far, to help residents come back.

Jacobsen, who figures he's moved seven times since Katrina and is currently staying with friends on the west bank of the Mississippi, still hopes to make a go of it in New Orleans. If he gets money from Road Home, great, he says: that will be lagniappe.

"I'm giving it one shot," said Jacobsen, 69. "And all I've got is one shot."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)