FEMA announced on January 27 that it would be modifying its plan to charge Hurricane Ida survivors living in temporary housing units (THUs) market-rate rent beginning in February. Instead, the agency will be charging survivors $50 per month through May 31, 2023. The policy change was made as a result of a waiver request submitted by the State of Louisiana arguing that higher rents would impact THU residents’ ability to fully recovery from Hurricane Ida. The decision will benefit significantly the thousands of disaster survivors still residing in these units following the 2021 storm.
FEMA has a statutorily created deadline – 18 months – on the provision of assistance following the declaration of a disaster. However, the agency has the authority – which it regularly uses – to extend this period upon request from state governments. Because housing programs administered by FEMA, such as the program creating THUs, often take many months to implement, disaster survivors typically receive direct housing assistance for only a short time frame before the deadline of 18 months arrives.
The “Stafford Act” provides FEMA with the discretion to charge rent for THUs following the expiration of the 18-month deadline, with minimum rent payments of $50 per month. In recent years, however, FEMA has begun to interpret this discretion as a requirement, and the agency moved to charge wildfire survivors in the Pacific Northwest and survivors of Hurricane Laura and Delta market-rate rents in 2022. While the agency permits appeals of its rent decisions, allowing survivors to demonstrate their inability to pay the full amount, notifications that full rent will be charged typically lead households to leave THUs, resulting in further displacement and, in the worst cases, homelessness. Advocates, including members of NLIHC’s Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition, have called on the agency to reverse such decisions.
Louisiana was partly successful in its request that the agency reverse its decision to charge rent for THUs. When the state requested that the agency refrain from charging any rent through the middle of this year, FEMA responded that it would charge the minimum rate of $50 per month through the end of May 2023. The state will need to send a subsequent waiver request before that deadline.
Read the FEMA press release on the decision at: https://bit.ly/40uRUTq
Read the Louisiana waiver request letter at: https://bit.ly/3X3jYub
Read FEMA’s response letter at: https://bit.ly/3JBiMv9