‘Ray of hope’ turns into cloud

By BILLY TOWNSEND
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: April 29, 2008

LAKE WALES - The Gable family’s mobile home is next to an orange grove on Masterpiece Road, northeast of Lake Wales. In the 14 years they have owned it, the home has never been a place of luxury. But the 2004 hurricanes, three of which strafed the Lake Wales area, turned it hellish. The storms downed trees, tore holes in the roof, and rotted flooring and walls.

The Gables applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help, and FEMA obliged, providing about $21,000 in emergency assistance grants, according to documents.

“FEMA was like a ray of hope to us,” said Eric Gable, 47, a construction worker and handyman who has been unemployed since Jan. 5.

That changed in March 2005, when FEMA decided it had provided too much hope. The agency said it accidentally gave the Gables more money than they deserved and demanded they promptly repay $8,213.79, more than a third of the grant they received.

The letter did not accuse the Gables of misusing the money, and the Gables say they were never told they might end up on the hook for a FEMA mistake. Yet, the debt remains. Three years later, they still owe their government at least $2,700, and creditors, private and public, are circling.

“It’s like government pouring water on a drowning man,” said Leroy Bell, a state board member for ACORN, a grass-roots organization that advocates for poor people. “We run roughshod over the weakest parts of our society because they can’t get up and fight.”

The Grant That Wasn’t

In August 2004, Hurricane Charley lifted the roof off the Gables’ back porch and threw it into a tree in their front yard. Charley lifted the mobile home off its moorings, wrecking the floor structure.

The roof of the mobile home was also damaged, and rain and wind from Charley and the following storms caused leaks throughout the home. Walls and ceilings were inundated and had to be ripped out.

The mobile home was not insured, as is typical for models its age.

The family applied for FEMA help and received $21,252 in grant money for emergency repairs, replacement costs for clothes and household goods, and emergency housing assistance, according to federal documents.

Those costs weren’t set by the Gables but by FEMA inspectors, who looked over the household after each of the storms.

The Gables say they used the money to help get back on their feet. They bought a generator; some used appliances to replace damaged ones; shingles for their replacement roof; new clothes for their daughter, whose room was flooded; plywood for floors; cabinets; a compressor and nail gun; and other miscellaneous needs.

FEMA also provided a trailer where the family lived while trying to fix their home.

Then, on March 18, 2005, FEMA sent its letter, informing the Gables they owed the $8,213.79. The letter didn’t explain how FEMA’s error occurred or who revised the amount.

“You must return the amount in full within 30 days of the date on this letter or interest and penalty charges will be added,” it said.

After appeals and reviews, the principal was reduced to $3,957.55 on March 17, 2007.

Because of penalties, interest and fees, that total reached $5,065, according to a Nov. 10 FEMA form letter carrying another warning: “If you wish to avoid further collection action and additional charges, you must immediately pay your debt.”

FEMA officials said this week that they could not talk about the specifics of the Gable case without written permission from the family. After several days, FEMA is still in the process of obtaining that permission.

“After every federally declared disaster, FEMA conducts an audit of its disaster assistance payments to individuals and households,” FEMA spokeswoman Alexandra Kirin said via e-mail.

“The review is intended to identify incorrect payments or possible fraud and to discourage abuse of the system. Sometimes the audit determines that some applicants received funds from FEMA for which they were ineligible.”

A FEMA statement in February 2007 estimated the audits typically find 2 percent or 3 percent of assistance funding was paid to people not eligible for some or any of the money they received.

Kirin pointed out that payment plans are available and that the agency is willing to work with debtors and “consider a hardship request, where the collection can be adjusted or suspended in certain circumstances.”

Living On No Income

The Gables - Eric; his wife, Songel; and daughter Nickie, 18 - haven’t paid back any of the money.

Eric Gable has not worked since construction on a local hotel was finished and he lost his job. His unemployment benefit has ended.

His wife has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and can’t work, Gable said. She lost the small disability income she was receiving because of the income her husband received last year while working, he said.

They have no monthly income now, Gable said, though they recently started receiving food stamp assistance.

On top of that, Gable is in legal trouble after an arrest in January on charges of driving with a suspended license and misdemeanor marijuana possession. He said he has agreed to a plea deal. But his home is in a remote area of Polk County, and any trip to look for work requires him to risk arrest or get his sick wife to drive him.

This year, the federal government confiscated Gable’s income tax return, which caused a new problem. As he had several times in the past, Gable used the anticipated return to secure a loan - this time for $1,200. He used it to pay his property taxes on the mobile home and other living expenses.

When the government took the income tax return, the money the loan was based on disappeared. And the lender wants its money.

“I tell them the government’s got your money,” Gable said.

On Feb. 22, a company called Pioneer Credit Recovery, acting on behalf of its creditor client, the Department of Homeland Security, wrote to remind Gable that his family still owes $2,753, even after the tax return confiscation.
In the end, Gable would like his debt forgiven. But it probably won’t matter much to his daily life. The family has no money with which to pay the debt.

And if it goes away, the poverty and lack of prospects will remain.

Bell, with the ACORN group, compared the Gables’ plight to people caught in the recent rash of home foreclosures, where lenders made ill-advised loans to people without the financial resources to meet them.

The debt and collection problems the Gables have experienced are “part of the cycle,” Bell said.

Except in this case, the money was a grant, not a loan. And the error, according to the documents, was FEMA’s. Bell said it’s absurd to try to collect money the Gables never had in the first place.

“FEMA knew they weren’t giving money to Donald Trump,” he said.

ACORN and others have filed suit against FEMA in Washington over its disaster payment practices. Among the allegations are that FEMA violated the Constitution by failing to provide aid recipients with clear notice of why it is seeking repayment.

Chipping Away At Destitution

As he flicked away flies from his face during a recent interview, Eric Gable repeated: “I’m not a carpenter.”

It was an apology of sorts for the quality of repair work on his home, all of which he has done himself. Gable ripped up most of the flooring and replaced it with uneven sheets of rough plywood. He spent two weeks reroofing. Because of a shortage of shingles at the time, the roof is a multi-colored collage.

He said he did the best he could. But the home still looks terrible.

Towers of clutter form walls and create rooms. Murky light oozes through a sliding glass door that opens onto a collapsed back porch strewn with debris and scrap metal.

In July, heat pours down with no air conditioning to ease it, flies buzzing in from the open doors and windows.

“And we have a rodent problem. Grove rats,” Gable said. “We’re doing the best we can, but it’s hard.”

Gable said he’s afraid county code officials will condemn it if they inspect.
They lost the use of the FEMA trailer in spring 2006 and were forced to move back in to the mobile home. Living there while trying to make repairs has been a “real hassle,” Gable said.

Gable said he wakes each morning surrounded by clutter and disarray in his home and his life and sometimes doesn’t know what to do next. For now, he’s collecting scrap metal for sale out of the on-site mechanic shop he dabbled with before the storms.

The Gables often entertained guests then. That has largely ended, Gable said.
“We don’t invite people over. We don’t socialize. I really don’t want them to see it.”

Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or .