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$1 billion plan in works to aid Katrina victimsSources: Non-profits would use federal money to resettle evacueesFrom Suzanne Malveaux SPECIAL REPORT
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Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is in final negotiations over a $1 billion plan to fund nonprofit groups' efforts to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees relocate, sources involved in those negotiations said Friday. The plan also includes a provision that would enable the evacuees to get help with resettling normally reserved for political asylum seekers. The administration is aiming to serve between 687,000 and 837,000 households through the program, or roughly 1.2 million people, the sources said. The announcement has been put on hold while Hurricane Rita threatens to hit the Gulf Coast. As of yet, the possibility of adding people displaced by Rita to the plan has not been discussed, the sources said. According to them, the administration offered to provide more than $1 billion to contract private, non-profit voluntary resettlement agencies to help resettle Katrina evacuees until their homes and communities can be rebuilt. The agencies would be responsible for intake and case-management services. At least half of the groups are faith-based. The nine agencies being considered have experience in helping refugees immigrate to the United States: World Relief, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Church World Service, the Ethiopian Community Development Council, the Episcopal Migration Ministries, the International Rescue Committee, the U.S. Committee for Refugees, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Typically, the State Department and Department of Health and Human Services contract with voluntary agencies in the United States to get refugees settled, housing, jobs, health care and social services. For the first time, the administration's hurricane relocation program would waive the "well-founded fear of persecution" requirement needed for refugee status, and use this network of agencies to provide such services to U.S. citizens, the Katrina evacuees. In using an existing network of experienced organizations, the administration's rationale is that it would forego a lot of the bureaucratic delays FEMA is experiencing., the sources involved in negotiations said. Taking part in the negotiations have been officials with FEMA and the Housing and Urban Development, along with Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and the head of the Administration for Children and Families Wade Horn, the sources said. Initially, the administration had offered to spend $210 per household, which would have approached $144 million to $175 million for the program, the sources said. But representatives from the voluntary agencies argued for funding along the lines of $1.5 billion. The $1 billion price tag is considered a compromise, the sources said. 
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