The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition is convening and supporting disaster-impacted communities to ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach all impacted households, including the lowest-income and most marginalized people who are often the hardest-hit by disasters and have the fewest resources to recover.
General Reporting and Resources
The Guardian discusses the recent record-breaking wildfires and hurricanes in the U.S., noting that while millions of Americans are being impacted by climate change, the consequences are disproportionately harming people of color and individuals with the fewest resources to recover from natural disasters.
An op-ed in Street Sense Media examines how the climate emergency exacerbates homelessness. “The United States, and the entire world, needs to face facts: we are simultaneously living through a climate crisis and a housing crisis, the two of which are inextricably linked,” the author, Kathryn McKelvey, writes.
An op-ed in the Daily Emerald calls attention to the differences in how we respond to individuals displaced by natural disasters and how we treat individuals experiencing homelessness and housing instability. “It would be horrendous to justify the burning of a house regardless of circumstance. It should be equally horrendous to justify leaving a family on a street simply because of economic shortcomings. In our nation, though, it’s not,” writes Parsa Aghel.
Wildfires in the West
Common Dreams examines how unhoused individuals in Oregon and Washington are experiencing the worst of the smoke as climate change intensifies wildfires each year. In 2018, more than 36,000 people were experiencing homelessness in Oregon and Washington combined, with almost 20,000 of those individuals living unsheltered. Those numbers are expected to grow due to the pandemic’s economic fallout, limited federal assistance, and the destruction caused by the wildfires.
California (DR-4558-CA)
Federal Response
Santa Clara County has been approved for federal assistance to individuals and households, as well as for repairs or rebuilding of community infrastructure, as part of the major wildfire disaster declaration approved August 22.
USDA announced that low-income California residents dealing with the ongoing wildfires could be eligible for the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP).
Reporting
The San Francisco Chronicle reports air quality in the Bay Area began to deteriorate Monday (9/28) morning as smoke from several wildfires – including the new Glass Fire in St. Helena – entered the region.
Homeless advocacy organizations have had to push the city and county of Sacramento to keep cooling centers open to provide indoor spaces for unsheltered individuals to get respite from the hazardous air quality. “The city and county need to do a better job of not only letting homeless people know that cooling centers, warming centers, clean air centers are open but then providing transportation so they’re utilized,” said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness.
Oregon (DR-4562-OR)
Federal Response
Disaster Unemployment Assistance benefits are available to workers in the eight Oregon counties that have been federally designated for disaster assistance.
Reporting
The Oregonian reports the Almeda fire’s destruction of mobile home parks is exacerbating the region’s existing shortage of affordable housing. Jackson County authorities estimate that 2,357 residential structures were destroyed in the Almeda fire, and three-quarters – an estimated 1,748 units – were manufactured homes in mobile home parks.
Hurricane Laura
Louisiana
Reporting
One month after Hurricane Laura, many Southwest Louisiana residents are awaiting federal assistance while living in tents. “With this [storm], it’s like a total loss of everything, and you’re reduced to living in a tent,” said Sherry Bourque, a survivor of Hurricane Laura. “Waiting on FEMA help because we didn’t have house insurance. So, it’s just a hurry up and wait.”
KLFY reports thousands of Louisiana residents who are outside FEMA’s declared disaster areas remain homeless in the wake of Hurricane Laura. Residents of Iberia Parish whose homes were destroyed by the hurricane, for example, are not eligible for FEMA Individual Assistance.
The Acadiana Advocate reports the Acadiana Regional Council on Homelessness is struggling with the area’s affordable housing shortage as it works to house people experiencing homelessness amid the pandemic and in the wake of Hurricane Laura. The shortage of shelter space, already impacted by COVID-19, is further exacerbated by survivors displaced by Hurricane Laura.
Hurricane Sally
Alabama (EM-3545-AL)
Federal Response
Alabama renters in Baldwin, Escambia, and Mobile counties impacted by Hurricane Sally who face eviction or have been evicted from their hurricane-damaged apartment complex may be eligible for disaster assistance from FEMA. They may be eligible even if they were previously determined ineligible for FEMA assistance.
USDA announced that low-income residents in Alabama recovering from Hurricane Sally could be eligible for USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP).
Florida (EM-3546-FL)
Reporting
Hurricane Sally survivors in Escambia County unable to return to their homes are struggling to find safe housing options, leaving some of them homeless. The county shelters are closed, and FEMA has not offered any immediate temporary housing options.
WKRG reports that at least five apartment complexes in Baldwin County are forcing tenants out of their homes due to wind and water damage from Hurricane Sally, leaving many families with nowhere to go.