Stanley Whitney
November 26, 2010
Sheriff, deputy honored for leading DDACTS revolution
November 30, 2010
If you thought you were too late for Tuesday’s publicized deadline to file a damage or loss application with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) for a settlement from BP, think again.
Beth Desonier, a project director with Volunteers of America, said last week that increased frustration voiced by agencies designed to help businesses and individuals by being resource centers between the public and GFCC prompted her organization to take the program to the public rather than simply sitting in an office and expecting people to know to come to them.
Desonier also said that the Nov. 23 deadline was misleading and confusing to both the general population and groups attempting to offer help following the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.
“The drop-dead deadline to file is Aug. 23, 2013. The Nov. 23 date was a deadline to file for emergency claims. The Nov. 23 date [said], ‘We’re stopping with emergency payments and we’re moving in to a second phase, which is going to be final payments,’” she said.
The VOA is a faith-based organization that originated as a spin-off from the Salvation Army. Desonier’s office is based in Lafayette.
“We’ve been working closely with [the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority] and TEDA is restricted to working strictly with businesses in navigating the claims process. The parish president, [Michel Claudet], put out a call and said that in [Terrebonne] parish we need a group of people who can work with the individuals,” Desonier said.
The social service expert said in turn, the VOA has launched a program offering free claims assistance in which they will set appointments and then travel to the areas where people wanting help with various forms and reports live.
“We will be at [the Government Building in Houma] for a couple of days a week then we will go to other communities like Dulac [or] Chauvin. If we get five or six calls from Chauvin, then we will go down to a library or community center and they can meet us there.
“You dial into the phone number to schedule an appointment and we will call you back,” Desonier said.
“The last thing I want is another GCCF scenario where they can’t get through to us. I’m going to be monitoring these phones. I’m going to send somebody down [to Terrebonne Parish] Mondays and Tuesdays or Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We’re going to focus on individual claims,” Desonier said.
Desonier confirmed the complaints others have had with the GFCC and acknowledged that the VOA also had trouble talking to authorities with that administrative organization.
“We are having the same difficulty that every other politician and their aides are having,” Desonier said. “In talks with Mr. [Kenneth] Feinberg, he indicated that by the end of this month he is going to have representatives in each local site that will be able to speak specifically to the claims.”
“A lot of our work is advocacy and without that open mind [from the GCCF] it has been problematic. Our main goal is to help people collect the documentation that is going to result in a successful claim,” Desonier said.
The VOA will help claimants put documentation together and include with it a cover sheet to the GCCF that confirms the claimant is providing all the information required.
“My understanding from a meeting with Mr. Feinberg was he is going to be offering something called interim payments. To me that is a lot like an emergency payment because a lot of people can’t put a number on future loss,” Desonier said.
To schedule a meeting and go over filing requirements with a VOA member, claimants can call (985) 868-8900.
The Terrebonne Parish Government Building is one site where Volunteers of America are working to take oil spill claims assistance to the public. MIKE NIXON
