FEMA quietly announced to stakeholders in Louisiana last month that it would stop accepting appeals and providing financial assistance for survivors of Hurricane Ida – 18 months after the storm impacted the state. The decision to terminate the assistance period was made despite more than 236,000 households in need remaining in limbo, with no decision having been made about their eligibility for assistance. In response, more than 60 non-profit organizations – including NLIHC and members of the NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) – signed on to letters asking that the agency grant a deadline extension requested by the state of Louisiana, which would allow disaster-impacted households time to submit appeals and extend assistance for participants in FEMA-administered assistance programs. In a victory for advocates in Louisiana and around the country, the agency responded by granting the state’s request for a three-month extension on March 2.
NLIHC leads the DHRC of more than 890 national, state, and local organizations, including many working directly with disaster-impacted communities and with first-hand experience recovering after disasters. The DHRC strives to ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach all the lowest-income and most marginalized survivors.
FEMA has a statutorily created deadline for the provision of assistance set at 18 months following the declaration of a disaster. However, the agency is provided the authority – and regularly agrees – to extend this period upon request by state governments. Because housing programs administered by FEMA, such as those overseeing the creation of THUs, often take many months to implement, disaster survivors typically only receive direct housing assistance for a short time before the eighteen-month deadline is reached. Similarly, the process for appealing FEMA denials of assistance commonly takes a significant amount of time due to the number of obstacles placed by FEMA on assistance. These obstacles disproportionately impact households with lower incomes, who are often the most in need of assistance following a disaster.
Because HUD-funded long-term disaster recovery programs often require applicants to have FEMA-verified losses above a certain threshold, a denial of assistance by FEMA can often preclude a household from receiving funds during the long-term recovery process, significantly impacting their ability to recover and increasing the danger of permanent displacement and homelessness.
In light of the significant impact on households with low incomes affected by the decision to prematurely end the assistance and appeals period, organizations such as NLIHC, the National Housing Law Project, Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, the Disaster Justice Network, the Lowlander Center, SBP, and other local and national organizations penned letters to administration officials pushing for FEMA to grant Louisiana’s request for an extension. FEMA’s decision to do so is an example of how housing, homelessness, legal aid, faith-based, volunteer, and community-based organizations can utilize their capacities and advocacy to push emergency management agencies at the state and local levels to ensure that all individuals receive the assistance they need to fully recover following disasters.
Read FEMA’s press release about the decision at: https://bit.ly/3SKrfib
Read the advocacy letters at: https://bit.ly/3IPtImF
Find more information about the DHRC at: https://bit.ly/2NOHusW