The president of the Mississippi NAACP called on Congress this week to set aside at least $2 billion for low and moderate-income homeowners whose properties were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Derrick Johnson, the Mississippi NAACP president, asked Congress to ensure that at least 50 percent of the $5 billion in Community Development Block Grant funds for Mississippi is allocated for struggling Gulf Coast homeowners, many of whom are black.

"There is no guarantee that any of the housing funding will be used in ways that benefit low and moderate-income homeowners, or that do anything to create or rehabilitate rental housing affordable to the poorest and most vulnerable families displaced by the hurricane," Johnson said in his testimony before the Housing Subcommittee on Housing and Equal Opportunity.

Johnson said a proposed state plan for Gulf Coast residents does not make any provisions for individuals with disabilities and financial hardships.

The Mississippi Governor's Commission Report, for which Johnson served as a vice-chair, noted that while all people were struck by the storm, lower-income households "were more likely to have lost their homes, due to a greater likelihood of living in older properties."

Johnson criticized the governor’s report, saying the initiative "fails to provide support for senior citizens who may have owned their home, but were on a fixed income and could not afford insurance, senior citizens who lived in an affordable housing complex, home renters, or residents that lived in an affordable or subsidized housing complex that was destroyed."

"If the housing problems faced by these groups are not addressed," said Johnson, "we fear that the storm and the government's response may permanently displace a large number of African-American and lower-income people."

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told BlackAmericaWeb.com Thursday the Mississippi governor’s report "penalizes" low-income and black homeowners by not providing them with enough funding to rebuild their homes because some didn't have homeowner’s insurance.

"Many of these people are on fixed incomes and had to make a choice between paying utility bills, buying medicine and food or getting homeowner’s insurance," Thompson said in an interview. "I believe they chose to survive."

"The governor said those without homeowner’s insurance were not responsible homeowners, but could it be that many of these people could simply not afford it?" the congressman asked. "We’ve raised our objections, and we have to keep the heat on."

Johnson’s testimony on Capitol Hill comes as President George W. Bush -- who is experiencing his lowest approval ratings ever at 34 percent -- is still being criticized for slow federal response to survivors of Hurricane Katrina, many of whom are black, displaced and unemployed.

On Thursday, a video obtained by Associated Press shows Bush at a high-level meeting being warned about the potential for disaster as a result of Hurricane Katrina days before the storm hit, although the White House maintains that Bush wasn’t aware of the storm’s impending devastation.

In addition, Bishop T.D. Jakes of the Potters House in Dallas, said Thursday he has not received any funding to help rebuild black churches in New Orleans after former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush recently promised $20 million to black faith organizations.

"I am annoyed, I am frustrated, I am angry," Jakes told the Washington Post.

And in a new congressional report card criticizing the performance of the Department of Homeland Security, House leaders, lead by Rep. Thompson of Mississippi, gave the Department a grade of "D" in the area of Emergency Preparedness and Response, because "Hurricane Katrina exposed significant flaws in our ability to prepare for and respond to catastrophic events."

In a teleconference call with reporters this week, several civic leaders talked of public and private partnerships to assist Katrina survivors.

"There is an extraordinary opportunity [in the Gulf rebuilding effort] for partnerships and working with others," said Reese Fayde, CEO of Living Cities, a national organization made up of financial institutions, foundations and federal agencies.

"We’ll never have enough money to do everything that needs to be done unless we are really aggressively using partnerships and different methods for blending private and public interests," Fayde said during the teleconference call.

"We have been clear that all income levels should be able to return," said Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink, who also participated in the media call. "But, for low-income people, this requires more than talk. It requires programs that focus on housing. Promising proposals have emerged but hurricane victims have been discouraged and overwhelmed."

Meanwhile, during his testimony on Capitol Hill, Johnson said that shortly after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi NAACP received word that black neighborhoods did not immediately receive relief aid from the Red Cross and other agencies.

Food, clothing and cleaning supplies donations "piled up in parking lots of white affluent neighborhoods" for several weeks before relief agencies and FEMA established a presence in poor and black communities, he said. Johnson said NAACP relief efforts served about 50,000 affected residents.

Johnson urged congressional leaders to instruct the Department of Housing and Urban Development to enforce the 50 percent requirement that block grant funds support low and moderate-income individuals and require that state plans for using the funds demonstrate how they will "adequately address the needs of all groups affected by the hurricane."