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
NLIHC and the Public and Affordable Research Corporation (PAHRC) released a joint report on June 29 analyzing the threat 18 types of natural hazards pose to project-based federally assisted housing. The report finds that one-third of federally assisted homes are in areas at very high or relatively high risk for negative impacts from natural hazards compared to one-quarter of all renter-occupied homes and just 14% of owner-occupied homes.
With input from DHRC members, NLIHC’s DHRC developed and sent to Capitol Hill recommendations for FEMA Individual Assistance (IA) legislative reforms.
Research & Resources
The California Coalition for Rural Housing (CCRH), a long-time DHRC partner, released Affordable Housing and Natural Disasters: A Practitioners Guidebook describing how organizations and communities can address affordable housing before, during, and after natural disasters. The guidebook, developed in part with assistance from NLIHC, is intended to serve 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. It contains numerous best practices, planning considerations, and case studies gleaned from CCRH members’ experiences preparing and responding to disasters in California and elsewhere.
Tropical Storms
The Atlantic hurricane season is heating up early, with meteorologists tracking at least two systems in the wake of Tropical Storm Danny. Four storms have formed so far this season in the Atlantic, but only Tropical Storm Claudette produced serious impacts, mostly in Alabama.
Severe Heat Wave
Unhoused individuals in Portland are battling the severe heatwave with help from community groups, homeless service providers, and volunteers. The heatwave poses a significant health threat for Oregon’s marginalized populations. Two unhoused individuals in Bend died over the weekend, and officials say cause of death was likely related to the heat.
The Seattle Times reports on the dangerous conditions people experiencing homelessness and low-income residents face amid the dangerous heatwave. Individuals with disabilities in low-income housing registered their concerns about conditions inside their units with city council members, alerting officials about windows with limited openings and a lack of air conditioning in their homes.
The Houston Chronicle examines how the severe heatwave impacting Houston is just one example of the disproportionate impact of climate change on low-income communities and communities of color. Neighborhoods with more concrete and fewer trees experience higher heat, and this has been found to correlate with communities that have been historically discriminated against.
Reporting
NPR reports on the inequities embedded in our country’s disaster recovery system. According to internal FEMA documents analyzing 4.8 million applications submitted between 2014 and 2018, the lowest-income renters were 23% less likely than higher-income renters to receive housing assistance. The documents reveal that FEMA was about twice as likely to deny housing assistance to lower-income survivors because the agency deemed the damage to their home to be “insufficient.” Additionally, NPR reports that FEMA has not analyzed whether there are racial disparities in who receives disaster aid, despite a growing body of research showing that people of color are less likely to receive adequate assistance.
To learn more, read the DHRC’s “Fixing America’s Broken Disaster Housing Recovery System” reports:
- Part One: Barriers to a Complete and Equitable Recovery
- Part Two: Policy Framework Reform Recommendations
Clay City residents are still seeking federal disaster aid as they struggle to recover from the severe flooding in February. Some flood survivors have been denied FEMA assistance for not having flood insurance, and many continue to face barriers to accessing aid due to FEMA’s complicated application process and onerous documentation requirements.
Grist examines the additional dangers non-English speakers and those with limited English proficiency face during natural disasters and highlights the importance of translation in disaster preparedness. Research indicates immigrants are particularly vulnerable to disasters and systematically left behind before, during, and after disasters – in part because local governments and institutions often fail to translate important disaster notices.
Congress
The House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on July 15 at 12 pm ET on “CDBG Disaster Recovery: States, Cities, and Denials of Funding.”
The House Committee on Homeland Security hosted FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell for a June 29 hearing on “Examining FEMA’s Readiness to Meet its Mission.” Watch a recording of the hearing here.
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management hosted FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell for the first time on June 23 for a hearing titled “FEMA’s Priorities for FY22 and Beyond: Coordinating Mission, Vision, and Budget.” This hearing comes after Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO), Subcommittee Chair Dina Titus (D-NV), and Ranking Member Daniel Webster (R-FL), sent a letter to FEMA raising the issue of basic eligibility determinations for Individual Assistance (IA) and clarity in appeals. Read NLIHC’s Memo 6/28 to learn more about the hearing.
FEMA
FEMA is seeking additional staff as it projects increasing demands on the agency and scales back ongoing deployments ahead of its busy natural disaster season. The COVID-19 pandemic and other disaster efforts have strained FEMA’s resources and employees.