This week, Governor John Bel Edwards announced a meaningful expansion of eligibility for the Restore Louisiana Homeowner Assistance Program. The changes open the program up to homeowners who didn’t qualify under the original criteria — particularly those with lower damage amounts and those who received larger insurance settlements.

If you filed and were told you didn’t qualify — or if you never filed because you assumed you didn’t — now is the time to re-check.

What changed

According to the state’s announcement and the program’s own news page:

  • The FEMA-determined damage threshold dropped from $5,000 to $3,000. That’s a meaningful shift — a lot of owner-occupied damage from the 2020-21 storms sat in the $3,000–$5,000 range and was previously excluded.
  • The maximum insurance received threshold rose from $25,000 to $50,000. Homeowners who got moderate settlements from their carriers were previously pushed out of the program entirely; many of them are back in.

The eligibility pool for these 2020-21 disaster events just grew substantially.

Who this actually matters for

  • Homeowners who were denied under the original criteria based on damage amount or insurance received — you should re-check your eligibility.
  • Homeowners who never filed a survey because they assumed they wouldn’t qualify — the math may have changed.
  • Homeowners in process who had borderline eligibility issues — this may resolve them.

News coverage from KPLC and WBRZ summarized the change in plain language around the time it was announced — worth reading if you want additional context.

What to do next

  1. Start with the survey. If you haven’t completed it, the initial survey at restore.la.gov is the gateway. It takes about 10–15 minutes.
  2. Revisit a previous denial. If you were denied previously and the reason was either damage amount or insurance received, contact the program to re-check.
  3. Gather your paperwork. The program will want proof of ownership and occupancy as of the date of the storm, FEMA registration, and insurance settlement documentation.
  4. Decide between Solution 1 and Solution 2. If you’re leaning toward picking your own contractor, our earlier post walks through that decision.

Why this matters for Solution 2 specifically

More eligible homeowners means more Solution 2 projects. The pool of homeowners who can now pick their own contractor just expanded, and — especially in the Capital Region — the contractor community that’s set up to run Solution 2 work is smaller than it looks.

If you’re considering Solution 2 now, the time to have the conversation is before you’re competing with a larger pool of other homeowners for the same contractor capacity.

Further reading

If you’ve been on the fence, call us at (985) 255-2435. Happy to walk through what a Solution 2 project might look like for your home.