The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition convenes and supports 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. Learn more about the DHRC’s policy recommendations here.
NLIHC Updates
With assistance from members of the DHRC, NLIHC submitted a comment to a FEMA Request for Information on Equity and Inclusion in agency programs on July 20. The response highlights the many instances where FEMA policies and programs prevent disaster survivors – including people of color, individuals experiencing homelessness, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with low incomes – from accessing the assistance they need to fully recover. Read NLIHC’s Memo, 7/26 to learn more.
Texas Housers also submitted comments to FEMA’s Request for Information, advising the agency to reform its Individual Assistance (IA) and Public Assistance (PA) programs. Learn about Texas Housers’ four key recommendations to FEMA.
Federal Response
Congress
The “Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act” passed unanimously out of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on July 28. The bill would require FEMA to expand the list of documentation it accepts to show ownership over disaster-damaged homes and require that the agency create a declarative form that disaster survivors can use to self-certify their eligibility for assistance. The bill addresses the long-standing issues with FEMA’s insistence that title documents be provided before assistance is provided for home repairs. This requirement has needlessly penalized residents of mobile home parks, communities of color, as well as tens of thousands of survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Susan Collins (R-ME), Todd Young (R-IN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced the “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” (S.2471, H.R. 4707) on July 22. The bipartisan bill, strongly supported by NLIHC and the DHRC, contains critical reforms proposed by DHRC members to help ensure the federal government’s long-term disaster recovery program, the Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, better serves disaster survivors with the lowest incomes and their communities. Please urge your senators and representatives to cosponsor the “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” to ensure disaster resources reach households and communities more quickly and to put in place key safeguards and reforms needed to better target those with the greatest needs! For more information, see recent congressional testimony from NLIHC Vice President of Public Policy Sarah Saadian.
FEMA
FEMA announced on July 27 that the agency has updated its Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) policy to make it easier for eligible disaster survivors to receive assistance. Under the updated policy, people staying in tents when they apply for FEMA aid may be eligible for the program. Additionally, FEMA says it will ensure people with disabilities have equal access to its services and programs, and that it will clearly communicate information about the TSA program to survivors in a simple, effective, accessible, and timely manner. The new policy states that FEMA will conduct continued eligibility reviews throughout the TSA activation.
FEMA announced on July 21 new initial initiatives to advance equity across the agency and work towards creating equitable outcomes for survivors. FEMA will host a Command and General Staff “Equity Stand Down” with over 400 FEMA field leaders on August 4-5, 2021, to provide critical information on civil rights law, equity levers field leaders can pull to enhance equity, and training on how to use the tools available within FEMA to incorporate equity into tactical decision making.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
HUD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) completed its audit of HUD’s disaster preparedness from 2005 to 2018 and found that HUD’s major programs – Multifamily Housing, Single Family Housing, Community Planning and Development, Native American Programs, and Public Housing – can improve their preparedness to respond to upcoming natural disasters. Read the audit here.
Advocacy
As a result of advocacy efforts by long-time DHRC partner Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico, HUD’s recently released Disaster Recovery and Special Issues Division (DRSI) DRSI Digest newsletter includes an FAQ about whether CDBG-DR applicants must prove ownership of a property to be assisted. The FAQ clarifies what Ayuda Legal has consistently raised with the Puerto Rico Department of Housing (PRDOH): 1) HUD does not impose a title or proof of ownership requirement; 2) the entity that receives the CDBG-DR funds, which is the PRDOH in this case, has the discretion to establish proof of ownership and, therefore, may accept alternative proofs of title; and 3) the PRDOH should have clarified the processes and ownership requirements early in the CDBG-DR process.
The Hispanic Federation, Hispanic Access Foundation, GreenLatinos, Poder Latinx, EcoMadres, and Corazón Latino are circulating an organizational sign-on letter urging Congress to prioritize bold climate, clean energy, and environmental justice investments in any infrastructure or budget reconciliation package. Read the letter and sign your organization onto it here!
Research and Resources
The California Coalition for Rural Housing, a long-time DHRC partner, joined this week’s DHRC Disaster Recovery Working Group to discuss the organization’s recently released disaster guidebook, Affordable Housing and Natural Disasters: A Practitioner’s Guidebook. The guidebook, developed in part with assistance from NLIHC, serves as a primer on the current state of disaster issues for affordable housing practitioners and a means of familiarizing disaster planners with the innovations coming forward in the affordable housing sector.
Hurricanes
Calcasieu Parish (Louisiana) officials unveiled a 137-page hurricane recovery plan, but now comes the difficult work of obtaining funding to implement it. The report lists housing as the top recovery priority, noting that about half of all homes in the parish were damaged in some way by the hurricanes. According to Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter, housing damage in Lake Charles totals about $235 million, including about $130 million to rental homes.
Local officials have grown increasingly frustrated that supplemental federal disaster relief funding has not been approved 11 months after Hurricane Laura, the strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana in 150 years. Homes and businesses throughout Lake Charles and the surrounding communities remain in various states of devastation, some still untouched since Hurricane Laura devastated the region. Learn more about the dire need for CDBG-DR funds for Southwest Louisiana.
Severe Heat
The Washington Post addresses how long-standing inequities in housing and health care place people with the lowest incomes at the greatest risk of the impacts of escalating climate disasters, including the extreme heat that resulted in at least 115 deaths in Oregon. The article highlights research demonstrating that extreme heat disproportionately impacts low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
Wildfires
Next City reports that Oregon and California are purchasing hotels to provide short- and long-term housing for wildfire survivors and unhoused individuals living in fire-prone areas. In less than eight months, Oregon’s Project Turnkey added nearly 900 beds over 19 properties in 13 counties. The program is gradually converting hotel units into permanently affordable housing. Santa Barbara, California recently approved a $1.6 million, 120-day pilot program to lease a hotel and provide temporary shelter and wraparound services for unhoused individuals residing in fire-prone encampments.