The Biden administration released the spring 2023 edition of the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Agenda) on June 14. The Agenda, which catalogues regulatory actions federal administrative agencies plan to conduct in the near and long term, is released twice a year in spring and fall. The newly released Agenda outlines several FEMA actions pertaining to disaster housing recovery, including what appears to include substantial reforms to FEMA’s Individual Assistance (IA) Program. According to a brief summary, the anticipated interim final rule would:
- Increase eligibility for home repair assistance by amending the definition of a “safe, sanitary, and functional” home;
- Allow assistance for certain accessibility-related items;
- Amend FEMA’s approach to evaluating insurance proceeds;
- Allow re-opening of the applicant registration period when the President adds new counties to a major disaster declaration;
- Simplify documentation requirements for continued temporary housing assistance;
- Simplify the appeals process for denied assistance applications;
- Simplify the process to request approval for a late registration;
- Remove the requirement to apply for a Small Business Administration loan as a condition of eligibility for Other Needs Assistance (ONA); and
- Establish additional eligible assistance under ONA for serious needs, displacement, disaster-damaged computing devices, and essential tools for self-employed individuals.
FEMA also plans to make revisions to reflect changes to statutory authority that have not yet been implemented in regulation, including provisions for: utility and security deposit payments, lease and repair of multifamily rental housing, childcare assistance, maximum assistance limits, and waiver authority.
This rule would be an “interim final rule,” which means that the changes will come into effect when it is first published in the Federal Register – currently projected to be released in October of 2023. Agenda dates are not hard-and-fast, they are “aspirational,” meaning a date in the Agenda is merely a goal. Typically, a proposed rule is published in the Federal Register to solicit comments from the public before the issuance of a final rule. In this case, FEMA used its ability to waive that requirement due to the emergency nature of its programs. Once published in the Federal Register, the interim final rule will at some point be open to comment by members of the public and subsequently modified if the agency finds that it is necessary.
Based on the description in the Agenda, this interim final rule may constitute significant improvements to the IA program – ones advocates, including the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC), have long requested. NLIHC and the DHRC will continue to monitor this scheduled rule change and will provide details and analysis when it is released.
Read the brief summary of the proposed interim final rule here: https://bit.ly/448nWG1
Information about disaster housing programs is available on page 6-52 of NLIHC’s 2023 Advocates’ Guide.