The Mandeville City Council will introduce at its meeting Thursday night a measure that if approved would provide victims of Chinese drywall some relief.

Councilman Jerry Coogan proposed the ordinance, which if approved would give victims of Chinese drywall a break on the cost of the building permits required to make repairs.

Coogan said he feels every homeowner or builder who used the drywall from China not knowing of what it contained had their trust violated, and they deserve to get some relief. “Right now there is no relief for them to look to,” he said.

He said since they are not getting that relief from the federal government, it is up to the local government to do what it can to help defray the homeowner’s cost of replacing the affected parts of the home.

Depending on how long they have had the drywall in their homes, the drywall might not be the only thing affected. In some cases, the plumbing and electrical wires have to be replaced, and in most cases insurance companies are not covering the cost.

Coogan said most of the homes affected are new construction, and Coogan said there are many in his district, including some in the Sanctuary, in the Woodlands and in other subdivisions on the west side of town.

What is being introduced Thursday night is an ordinance to give victims a 75 percent rebate when they pull building permits to replace the plumbing, sheetrock and electrical wires in their affected homes.

In order to qualify for the rebate, the suggested ordinance states that the homeowner must provide the city with a copy of the submitted assessment review form from the St. Tammany Assessor’s Office along with all of the supporting documentation required by the assessor to show the presence of tainted drywall in the structure.

Coogan said the city will incur a cost to have these homes inspected when the permits are pulled, but he said he does not think it is fair to have residents incur all of the costs of those permits and inspections when they are already having to incur all of the other cost of making the necessary repairs.

“We should cut them some slack,” he said. “They have already been permitted before.”

He said he feels for these people, many of who do not have the money to pay for the improvements necessary to simply make their homes safe to live in.

“Some people save all their lives for their dream home and now their dream home is a health death trap,” Coogan said. “I really feel for these people and this is something the city can do on a temporary basis to cut them some slack.”

He said the other council members are also sympathetic to this issue, and he does not for see any problem getting the ordinance passed.