Statement from the LRA -- Christina Stephens, Press Secretary:

Our staff is working each day to improve the Road Home program. We just concluded a series of outreach sessions that served more than 4,200 people -- a third of which saw action on their case based off of the one-on-one meetings -- and the state has taken over many of the functions of the program. When applicants complained that deadlines we've set did not give them enough time, we canceled many of them.

This administration remains committed to improving the Road Home program for applicants, which is why the state took over the appeals process and also halted the plan, approved under the Blanco administration, that would have allowed ICF to hire a third party collections agency to recapture overpayments from applicants. Since January, we fined the contractor more than one million dollars for failure to meet its program benchmarks. We've taken a much more agressive, hands-on management style with ICF International, a contractor the Jindal administration inherited.

We know that for those still waiting, this process is excrutiating, which is why our commitment to the program and its homeowners has not wavered.