Congressional Briefing: Fixing America’s Broken Disaster Housing Recovery System

The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the deep, longstanding inequities in our nation’s disaster housing response and recovery system. From Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Maria, and Hurricane Harvey to the most recent disasters, including Hurricane Laura, the Iowa derecho, and California wildfires, one thing is clear: our disaster housing recovery framework is broken, exacerbating and reinforcing racial, income, and accessibility inequalities at each stage of response and recovery.

Federal disaster housing recovery efforts must be redesigned to ensure a complete and equitable recovery for our nation’s lowest-income and most marginalized disaster survivors, including seniors, people living with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, and others. These individuals are often hardest hit, have the fewest resources, and face the steepest path to recovery.

The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition of more than 850 local, state, and national organizations working in disaster recovery released a two-part report, “Fixing America’s Broken Disaster Housing Recovery System,” outlining the barriers to a complete and equitable disaster recovery and recommendations for policy reform. The report – developed by NLIHC and the Fair Share Housing Center of New Jersey – was created during a convening of housing, homelessness, research, civil rights, fair housing, and legal experts working in disaster areas and calls for both ambitious and common-sense reforms to ensure disaster recovery services and funding reach those most in need.  

Learn about the report’s recommendations, the need for its reforms, and current disaster recovery reform efforts, at a virtual briefing on September 10th at 3:00pmET.

Moderator:

• Sarah Saadian, Vice President of Public Policy, National Low Income Housing Coalition

Panelists:

• Sara Buck, Housing Services Manager, City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa
• Andreanecia Morris, Executive Director, HousingLOUISIANA
• Ariadna Michelle Godreau-Aubert, Executive Director, Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico
• Chrishelle Palay, Executive Director, Houston Organizing Movement for Equity (HOME) Coalition
• David Rammler, Attorney, Fair Share Housing Center of New Jersey
• Trey Reffett, Housing & Infrastructure, Office of Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI)