DHS Office of Inspector General Releases Report on FEMA’s Hurricane Maria Sheltering Program

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report on February 4 detailing the need for FEMA to learn from its attempts to implement the Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power (STEP) program in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. A pilot program meant to enable the government of Puerto Rico to perform minor emergency repairs on disaster-damaged and owner-occupied single-family homes, STEP was intended to provide quick repairs to homes, allowing owners to reside in them while working through the often-complicated FEMA application process. Though the program had already been implemented in Houston, TX, following Hurricane Harvey, Puerto Rico’s STEP program was the largest of its kind undertaken by FEMA in terms of cost and the number of homes eligible to be covered by the program.

Yet even with some accountability measures already in place, the overwhelming need for shelter on the island following the hurricane meant that the territorial government was quickly overwhelmed by the volume of applicants for the STEP program. The report details how FEMA failed to ensure that the program (which was run by the territory) met initial or extended deadlines or that home repairs were completed within six months as required by regulation. Instead, as the report explains, repairs continued for over 16 months following Hurricane Maria. In the report, the DHS OIG also shows that FEMA failed to establish periodic performance goals for the program, adequately record complaints from homeowners, or validate information on program progress provided by the territorial government. In addition, the report finds that the various FEMA offices tasked with monitoring the program failed to coordinate program oversight effectively.

Authorities in Puerto Rico who were interviewed for the report told the DHS OIG that they did not believe implementation had been delayed, given the number of successful applicants to the program (108,000). The amount of damage, the remote location of many damaged homes, and local supply and construction limitations combined to slow program implementation.

The STEP program was later cancelled by FEMA, and the agency has relied increasingly on state and local officials to administer short-term disaster housing recovery and sheltering programs. This reliance is currently evident in Louisiana, where the state has been administering temporary housing programs and distributing campers and travel trailers (an effort that has involved similar delays). In the report, the DHS OIG recommends establishing specific performance goals and better coordinating oversight regarding programs of these types. In response, FEMA has indicated it will seek to implement the recommendations made in the report.

Read the report at: https://bit.ly/3sSaPYw