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.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development posted three Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) explaining how the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program can be used to help jurisdictions respond to heat waves. Read NLIHC’s Memo, 7/6 for more information.
FEMA
Headwaters Economics reports that almost all (94%) FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding will likely go to East Coast states and Pacific Coast states. Mountain, Midwest, and Gulf states failed to compete successfully for FEMA’s resilience funding program. Capacity issues, including access to engineers and grant writers, continues to be a barrier for many communities. As the geographic breakdown of projects reveals, Headwaters Economics says new metrics and technical assistance are needed to help rural and lower-capacity communities access critical disaster mitigation and resilience resources.
Tropical Storm Elsa
FEMA approved an emergency declaration for Florida to supplement response efforts for areas potentially affected by Tropical Storm Elsa. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct federal assistance and reimbursement for mass care including evacuation and shelter support, will be provided at 75% federal funding.
Extreme Heat Wave in the West
WBUR’s Here & Now highlights how the extreme heat is impacting people experiencing homelessness in Salem, Oregon. Over the past year, a series of crises has plagued Marion County, particularly impacting unhoused people in the region. The county has faced the pandemic, the Labor Day wildfires that burned 400,000 acres and devastated 700 homes, a difficult winter with an ice storm that impacted power for most of the county, and the recent record-setting heat wave.
The Washington Post reports another intense heat wave is expected to impact southwest Canada and much of the western United States. Temperatures up to 25 degrees above average could dominate most of the West this weekend and into next week, with little relief in sight. The extreme heat foreshadows a potentially devastating wildfire season.
The 19th reports on the heat wave’s impact on unhoused women and LGBTQ+ people. The pandemic and its effects on health, jobs, and wages have increased the likelihood that women and members of the LGBTQ+ community experience housing insecurity or homelessness, and climate change is further complicating their lives. “The heat wave is one disaster, but if you’re looking at it as part of a continuum of all these other climate-related or climate exacerbated disasters, it’s yet another example of how the most marginalized populations are hit over and over and over again,” said Sarah Saadian, vice president of public policy at NLIHC.
The Los Angeles Times editorial board urges the U.S. to treat extreme heat as a disaster on par with hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. Low-income communities of color are most impacted by heat waves because they tend to live in older housing without air conditioning and in neighborhoods that lack trees and parks. The editorial board highlights that public investments can help at-risk communities mitigate the effects of extreme heat.
People experiencing homelessness in the Pacific Northwest were already in a humanitarian crisis due to the pandemic and wildfires, and the recent record-breaking heat wave has exacerbated these challenges.
Flooding
The Detroit News reports that more than 20 residents at a low-income housing complex in Ypsilanti face eviction after property managers deemed their units “uninhabitable” due to flooding from torrential rains at the end of June. The Huron Heights and Huron Ridge apartment complexes participate in HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) sent a letter to HUD on July 6 seeking answers on the department’s involvement and how officials will work with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority on addressing whether the property managers followed protocol in tackling the flood damage.
Hurricanes
In collaboration with the Kay Dore Counseling Clinic at McNeese State University, Southerly created a mental health resource guide for southwest Louisiana residents. The guide includes pieces of Southerly’s reporting on hurricane recovery, as well as information on affordable counseling services. Read more about why and how the group created the mental health resource guide.
The Hill reports that Florida is bracing for a severe hurricane season as the state deals with the fallout from the devastating condominium collapse in Surfside. This year’s hurricane season is expected to be above average. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts 13 to 20 named storms, with six to 10 hurricanes threatening the United States.
Wildfires
PBS NewsHour reports that amid an unprecedented heat wave and worsening drought, western states are bracing for a wildfire season that threatens to be worse than last year. News Hour’s Stephanie Sy spoke to a family who lost their home in last year’s Almeda Fire, which leveled about 2,800 structures in the towns of Phoenix and Talent. The fire left one-third of students in the Phoenix-Talent school district suddenly homeless, and officials estimate more than 400 families remain displaced.
FEMA announced on June 30 that additional disaster assistance is available for Oregon. President Biden authorized an increase in the level of federal funding from 75% to 100% cost share for Public Assistance (PA) projects undertaken as result of wildfires and straight-line winds during the period of September 7 – November 3, 2020.