NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell expressing concern over the recent rise in the number of applications for Hurricane Fiona assistance in Puerto Rico that have been denied due to ownership verification issues. Written on behalf of the NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC), the letter requests that FEMA immediately implement solutions called for by Puerto Rican organizations to rectify the issue. NLIHC also issued an accompanying press release concerning the letter.
The DHRC includes more than 850 local, state, and national organizations, including many organizations working directly with disaster-impacted communities and with first-hand experience recovering after disasters. Together, members of the coalition work to ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach all impacted households, including those with the lowest incomes.
For decades, FEMA required disaster-impacted homeowners to submit title documents to receive assistance, and the agency refused to accept alternative documentation. This requirement effectively barred low-income homeowners – predominantly Black and Latino households – from receiving the assistance for which they were eligible. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, for example, over 77,000 households were wrongfully denied needed FEMA assistance due to title issues. Last year, after years of advocacy by NLIHC and our partners, FEMA updated its policy. Under FEMA’s new policy, survivors can self-certify ownership of their homes when they do not have other documentation, overcoming a major hurdle to recovery. FEMA policy also allows all survivors to submit a broader array of documents to prove occupancy and ownership of their homes. Now, however, troubling reports from partners in Puerto Rico and Florida indicate that FEMA has again reverted to its harmful policy of denying needed assistance to certain homeowners.
“It is not enough for FEMA to simply change its policies on title documentation requirements,” reads the letter. “FEMA must also take concrete steps to ensure disaster survivors can benefit from these policy changes by training staff and contractors on the new policy, correcting inaccurate information provided to survivors, providing self-declarative forms in accessible formats for survivors, and raising awareness through an information campaign.”
“Despite recent changes to FEMA policy to address decades-long title documentation barriers that wrongfully prevented many of the lowest-income and most marginalized disaster survivors from accessing FEMA assistance, persistent challenges remain,” explains Diane in an accompanying press release. “Without immediate action by FEMA to resolve these issues, disaster survivors will be effectively barred from receiving FEMA assistance altogether, and may face displacement and, in the worst cases, homelessness.”
A bill to address this issue, the “Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act,” was recently introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and 14 Senate colleagues. The bill would expand the use of FEMA assistance and ensure that individuals can access the aid for which they are eligible, even when they do not have updated title documentation for homes damaged by disasters. The bill is companion to a piece of legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and sponsored by Representative Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). Passing these bills is one of the main legislative objectives of the DHRC.
Read the text of the letter at: https://bit.ly/3gtOQEu
Read NLIHC’s press release at: https://bit.ly/3eLJqVf
Read the text of the “Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act” at: https://bit.ly/3dVJxwR