NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Marsha Williams always hesitated when mail arrived from the government, but after Hurricane Katrina she began to fear the letters.One notice warned that her apartment building could be shut down because the landlord had not repaired storm damage. She worried: What did all the legal forms mean? Was there more paperwork she needed to send in? But at age 51, Williams was embarrassed that she could not read much more than her own name and address.”I didn’t get a lot of school when I was a child. I guess they didn’t have enough to go around,” said Williams, who is learning to read in a YMCA adult-education course. She brought the forms to class for help.Three years after Hurricane Katrina, residents of New Orleans are still buried in a blizzard of government paperwork. But for thousands of storm victims seeking federal aid, the challenge is made more difficult by a little-known obstacle: More than 40 percent of the city’s adults lack the literacy skills to comprehend basic government forms. And recovery programs have done little to ease the burden.Rachel B. Nicolosi, program director for the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, estimates that as many as 100,000 people from New Orleans may have had assistance delayed, or they never applied for help at all, because they could not read the paperwork.”It’s a paramount issue. The rules are almost indecipherable for everyone,” said Davida Finger, a staff attorney for Loyola University’s New Orleans College of Law, which has helped 1,000 people seek rebuilding aid, nearly all of whom had trouble understanding the forms.Katrina destroyed 27 adult literacy programs when it came ashore in 2005. Only 13 programs survived, so Nicolosi and others have asked for government rebuilding agencies to write aid forms in a “plain language” format that is already used for some federal health and safety documents.But some government officials say too much plain language can leave out vital information.”I concede the point that those who are functionally illiterate, they would have challenges with any form,” said Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He said the agency has trained all of its 37 staff members in New Orleans to help “those with literacy disabilities.”The National Adult Literacy Survey indicates that 25 percent of U.S. adults read at the lowest functional level, meaning, for example, that they can locate an expiration date on a driver’s license but cannot fill out most motor-vehicle forms.In New Orleans, that figure is 44 percent, according to the survey, which is performed every decade and was last conducted in 2003.The cornerstone of neighborhood rebuilding efforts is the $10.3 billion Road Home program, which asks participants to review dozens of documents and sign 18 final legal papers before aid is approved.One paragraph reads: “Homeowner(s) agree(s) to the filing of certain covenants to run with the land on the property for which this Grant is awarded requiring generally as follows: flood insurance to be maintained if located in Special Flood Hazard Area and restraints on use, occupancy and alienation of the Property. The actual covenants are contained in the instrument to be executed by Homeowner(s) and recorded in the land records of the parish where the Property for which this Grant is awarded and located.”Christina Stephens, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Recovery Authority that oversees the Road Home program, said the papers are legal documents, which is “why they sound so serious.” But she acknowledged that “it’s equally important that people can understand what they are signing.”Since the program was created in 2006, it has held at least 22 training sessions for staff members specifically designed to help illiterate applicants, Stephens said.Government officials “know who their audience is, and they should write for them,” said Annetta Cheek, a spokeswoman for the Plain Language Action and Information Network, a group of federal employees who advocate for clearer language in government communications.—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]