With less than a week to go before the Brookhaven service centercloses, Red Cross officials have again changed guidelines forHurricane Katrina victims to receive aid.

Effective Monday morning, applicants are required to providedocumentation of damage to their homes in order to get assistancefrom the organization. The Red Cross will no longer give out checksfor undocumented damages.

The change from previous policy was due to growing complaints ofabusing the Red Cross relief efforts. The change, however, broughtfurther frustrations from local authorities who felt like pastpromises were being broken.

The change was announced Sunday. Center Director Nancy Butlersaid new guidelines were issued as the Red Cross’s mission shiftedfrom emergency response to assistance in conditions that were morecalm.

“We’ve tried to be excellent stewards of the dollars people havedonated,” Butler said.

Jack Sitch, public affairs officer at the Monticello servicecenter, said the change also was intended to ensure those who needassistance are receiving it.

“Quite frankly, some mistakes were made in how we were handingout money,” Sitch said.

The Brookhaven center has been seeing approximately 600 people aday since it opened in early September. After several days ofconfusion, a ticket system was set up for appointments through Oct.8.

Officials said the Brookhaven center is scheduled to close thatday and shift operations to the Monticello center in the oldKellwood building.

Sitch said those with appointments this week may still come tothe Brookhaven center, but should have documentation of damage. Ifdocumentation is not available, Butler said applicants can requestand fill out paperwork for a Red Cross assessment to be done.

“We’re basically doing now what Red Cross has always done,”Butler said.

Sitch added a lot of donors to Red Cross are demanding thattheir dollars be used for the intended purpose.

“This is requiring us to ask a few more questions than we did inthe first place,” Sitch said.

Totals on the number of people seen and how much money had beendispersed were not available Monday. Melton McMorris, president ofthe local Red Cross chapter, estimated however that more than $20million had been given out.

McMorris said Red Cross early on tried to help Louisiana andcoastal residents impacted by the hurricane. He lamented that someothers were turned away with the promise that assistance would beforthcoming.

“We must have served thousands who didn’t have to give usanything,” McMorris said.

Earlier, Red Cross officials acknowledged that dollar amounts ofchecks issued began to skew toward the maximum $1,565 as theassistance process continued as word circulated on how it was beinghandled.

As late as last week, Red Cross officials were saying peoplewith tickets would receive assistance. That changed over theweekend.

Brookhaven-Lincoln County Civil Defense Director Clifford Galeysaid he voiced strong objections to the guidelines change during adiscussion with Red Cross officials Saturday. Nevertheless, thechange was announced Sunday.

“The change in midstream is making people mad, and I don’t blamethem,” said Galey, alluding to some disgruntled applicants’comments Sunday.

Butler said “wrinkles” from Sunday had been ironed out andthings were progressing smoothly Monday.

Galey also mentioned comments he heard from people who vowed tonot contribute to the Red Cross.

Galey defended the local chapter, saying it has been excellentthroughout the response to the disaster and had gone above thebeyond to address situations. He said local contributions help thelocal chapter to continue functioning.

“For all the folks upset at the Red Cross, I don’t want them tonot contribute to the local Red Cross,” Galey said. “They hadnothing to do with it.”