On Thursday, February 22nd, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, headed by Representative Maxine Waters (D-Ca), held a field hearing in New Orleans at Dillard University to address the housing crisis in the city. In the exhaustive five and half hour hearing Representative Waters chewed out the head of ICF, the company overseeing Road Home Grants and promised to draft legislation to eliminate federal requirements that limit the delivery of Community Block Development Grant funds. Public Housing was also addressed in the hearing, with Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) at one point telling Donald Babers of the Housing Authority of New Orleans that his actions were callous. Also during the hearing Governor Blanco discussed replacing ICF if certain deadlines are not met.

Selected Audio of the hearing: