This is the Louisiana process for asking management which is state employees paid by federal tax dollars that are awarded to assist in disaster recovery. The state of Louisiana earns between $65 million to $300 million to manage HUD CDBG projects and Disaster Recovery is paid in separate allocations approved by congress. Management earns between $100,000 and $200,000 per year in salaries paid for by federal tax dollars. Salaries are set by the states executive branch of government. 

After the 2016 floods in Louisiana most homeowners asked only one thing from their state workers, "Do your job" and you might find they did their job, their job was to deny, dismiss, rescind, terminate and to make up their own interpretation of HUD policy that allowed them to redirect federal tax dollars to other state projects under the control of the executive branch of government. 

It's a known fact that the governors office of homeland security and emergency preparedness requested the program offer no more assistance to 15,000 households and to keep the amount of federal tax dollars below $550 million which averaged $37k per household for recovery funds awarded by congress. 

So when you feel your state hasn't followed HUD policy or when you feel the allocations and waivers section approved by congress isn't being used in the spirit of the rule of law then you need to ask for an exception panel review. But how do you get past your lower level call center workers paid to stop you from speaking with upper management? You force them to do their job and that is to only be your communications liaison in this case.

From the policy manual for Louisiana and other states will be similar. 

"Upper Management (Exception) Requests

The scenarios and awards presented in the policy framework are intended to capture the majority of the general categories of damage and award combinations double flooded applicants will face however, scenarios may arise that are not addressed in the framework. For those scenarios not addressed which require consideration of exceptional circumstances, the case should be presented to Upper Management for consideration. There is an extensive process to adhere to prior to requesting a review by Upper Management. The Case Manager is responsible to prepare a Case Exception Request Form with supporting documentation to review with their POD Lead. Once the POD Lead reviews and agrees the file should be submitted to Upper Management, then the CM can submit a Case Exception Request Form to policy@restore-la.org. The Policy team will vet the exceptions request prior to submitting to Upper Management".

When your case manager doesn't feel they want to allow your request to go to management then you need to look up your states managers and send your request directly to them. But be warned, if you are not discussing policy approved by HUD or created by your state you may not be able to make a good argument. The key is to find policy issues that conflict with HUD's national objectives. Or policy issues that discriminate against groups or pay higher levels of assistance to different demographics. 

Before you send any request for an Exception board review you should ask for your documents to be reviewed. I can assist with your review for any CDBG-DR program policy from any state in the USA except for those that do not allow the general public access to public information.