The Biden Administration released the Spring 2023 Edition of the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Action (Agenda) on June 14. The agenda, which catalogues planned actions administrative agencies plan to conduct in the near and long term, is released twice a year in Spring and Fall. The newly released Agenda outlines several agency actions pertaining to disaster housing recovery, including what appears to include substantial reforms for FEMA’s Individual Assistance (IA) Program.
The interim final rule for FEMA will:
- Increase eligibility for home repair assistance by amending the definition of a “safe, sanitary, and functional” home,
- Allow assistance for certain accessibility-related items;
- Amend its approach to evaluating insurance proceeds;
- Allow for the re-opening of the applicant registration period when the President adds new counties to the major disaster declaration;
- Simplify the documentation requirements for continued temporary housing assistance;
- Simplify the appeals process for denied assistance applications;
- Simplify the process to request approval for a late registration;
- Remove the requirement to apply for a Small Business Administration loan as a condition of eligibility for Other Needs Assistance (ONA);
- Establish additional eligible assistance under ONA for serious needs, displacement, disaster-damaged computing devices and essential tools for self-employed individuals.
FEMA also plans to make revisions to reflect changes to statutory authority that have not yet been implemented in regulation, to include provisions for utility and security deposit payments, lease and repair of multi-family rental housing, child care assistance, maximum assistance limits, and waiver authority.
This rule is an “interim final rule” which means that the changes will come into effect when it is first published in the federal register – currently projected to be released in October of 2023. Typically, a proposed rule is published in the federal register to solicit comments from the public before the issuance of a final rule. In this case, FEMA used its ability to waive that requirement due to the emergency nature of its programs. This rule will then be open to comment by members of the public and subsequently modified if the agency finds that it is necessary.
Based on its description in the Agenda, this rule may constitute significant improvements to the IA program – ones which advocates, including the DHRC, have long requested. NLIHC and the DHRC will continue to monitor this scheduled rule change and will provide comments when it is released.
Additional disaster recovery updates below.
Congressional and National Updates
Based on the rapidly approaching date where FEMA is projected to run out of disaster relief funds, conversations around a potential disaster assistance supplemental spending bill is ramping up on capital hill. FEMA is expected to burn through all its disaster relief money sometime in August and eventually run up a $10 billion deficit by the end of September.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced new partnerships between the U.S. and Caribbean nations involving additional support for disaster resilience and emergency management work.
Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to the Biden Administration requesting that the administration move to address bureaucratic deficiencies identified during the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season. In addition he requested that FEMA “be prepared to expedite the placement of portable residences and trailers in areas that have been devastated by storm surge to allow survivors to live on their properties” and that HUD “ensure that there are sufficient protections in place for residents of HUD-assisted properties to prevent them from being forced back into living conditions that may have been made unsafe and unsanitary following a disaster.”
The SBA is touting a law passed last year as allowing the agency to provide more disaster-related low-interest loans to impacted households. The bill, The Disaster Assistance for Rural Communities Act, was signed by President Biden in December of last year. The bill provides the SBA with greater flexibility to deploy its disaster-related loan programs.
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) released a list of resources available to individuals experiencing homelessness before, during, and after disasters.
HUD released an informational card for homeowners with government-backed mortgages, the cards are available in multiple languages.
The Federation of American Scientists released a sweeping set of recommendations dealing with data transparency for disaster recovery and response programs. The Open Disaster Data Initiative would standardize data measurements for disaster recovery across federal agencies and provide access to research and academic institutions seeking to analyze recovery data for trends and climate-related research.
Grist covered several new reports outlining how climate justice might look different or be similar between Appalachia and the South.
State and Local
California
A mobile home park flooded earlier this year during successive extreme rain events is slated to become affordable housing – with leaders in Longmont planning to utilize American Rescue Plan Act funding to fund the development.
Insurance Company State Farm unceremoniously left the state ahead of wildfire season – blaming inflation and reinsurance costs and leaving many homeowners in a lurch.
California has launched a program for relief of the undocumented community impacted by winter storms thirteen weeks ago.
Florida
While the Florida Division of Emergency Management, currently under fire for using state funds to organize and flyrecent immigrants to California after it publicly acknowledged its role earlier this month – and which are being investigated, has not yet completed its review of the 2022 Hurricane season, lawmakers from around the state are working to integrate lessons learned.
Guam
Julian Aguon details the current situation in Guam in The Nation. Hundreds remain in shelters and FEMA has received 17,000 individual assistance applications.
Hawaii
Hawaiians are debating the creation of a new first responder technology campus to house the state’s emergency operations center along with up to 19 different federal, state, and city law enforcement, fire, defense, and other emergency response agencies. The proposed campus will also include a hotel, stores, a pool, a community center, an indoor shooting range, a driving course, cybersecurity data center, housing, office, storage, meeting space, and tactical raid practice facilities. The proposal will cost $470 million to construct.
Iowa
Officials in Glenwood, Iowa have thrown their support behind a housing project utilizing HUD long-term disaster recovery funds. The funds were provided by HUD to the Iowa Economic Development Authority following the 2019 Missouri River floods.
10 years after the 2008 Cedar Rapids floods, the city is on the cusp of recovery, with the damaged northwest portion of the town beginning to return to life.
Kentucky
Residents of West Kentucky have benefited from St. Vincent DePaul Disaster Services’ “House in a Box” program, which provides new household furnishings to renters and homeowners who lost their homes.
Louisiana
The State of Louisiana is requesting another extension for FEMA-subsidized rent for disaster-impacted households residing in temporary housing after Hurricane Ida. The households, who are awaiting the repair or rebuilding of their disaster damaged homes or who have been displaced from rental housing and attempting to find alternatives, are due to have their rent increase from $50 a month to the designated fair market rate rent – which for some might be above $1,000. Alternative housing is slim, with only 27 rental complexes with vacancies in the 10 parishes impacted by Hurricane Ida – many of these available units are outside the price range of the impacted households.
Mississippi
Mississippi communities have been hit by multiple disasters in recent years, but often the property damage created by those storms don’t fit the requirements for a disaster declaration from the federal government. On aggregate however, the number of homes damaged or destroyed in undeclared disasters since 2021 alone equate to 982 homes – which is at or above the rate of damage from federally declared disasters. In the meantime, impacted households are forced to attempt to recover alone.
Montana
One year after historic flooding along the Yellowstone River, the community is proud of the continuing unified effort for recovery. Those floods impacted 400 homes.
Texas
Harris county approved a $825 million flood mitigation project utilizing HUD long term recovery dollars on June 6. The county will submit the plans to the Texas General Land Office (GLO) for approval. The GLO was recently found to have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act when distributing related funds under HUD’s disaster mitigation program.