Yesterday, Thursday, September 25, NLIHC kicked off the second half of its Training Institute for Tenants and Residents (TITR) session with a webinar on Disaster Recovery 101. This webinar provided tenants, residents, and advocates with foundational knowledge of the U.S. disaster recovery system, its shortcomings, and how communities can organize for resilience and reform.
NLIHC Tenant Leader Fellow Dee Ross moderated the webinar. NLIHC Director of Disaster Recovery Noah Patton and NLIHC Disaster Housing Recovery Analyst Meghan Mertyris shared information on how disasters can be natural or physical events, but also as political in nature—emphasizing that disasters occur when hazards meet the built environment in ways that overwhelm a community’s ability to function.
Patton explained that the nation’s disaster recovery system is significantly broken—slow, inequitable, and often leaving the lowest-income and most marginalized households behind. Renters, in particular, are routinely excluded from recovery assistance, with programs like FEMA’s Individual Assistance and HUD’s CDBG-DR funding disproportionately favoring homeowners.
The presenters provided information on the primary forms of recovery aid—FEMA, HUD, Rapid Unsheltered Survivor Housing (RUSH), nonprofit aid, and private insurance—while highlighting systemic barriers, such as confusing appeals processes, delayed funding, and inadequate renter support. Participants learned how advocacy has already driven key reforms, including the creation of the RUSH program and progress on federal bills like the FEMA Act of 2025 and the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act. Both pieces of legislation aim to increase access, transparency, and equity in recovery resources.
The webinar emphasized a two-pronged approach: keeping each other safe now through community-led resilience efforts (resilience hubs, evacuation planning, go-bags, mutual aid) and reforming the system through sustained advocacy and policy change. Attendees were encouraged to plug into NLIHC’s Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC)—a network of more than 900 organizations—to share information, receive technical assistance, and coordinate advocacy.
Whether new to disaster recovery or already organizing in their communities, participants left with practical strategies for both grassroots preparedness and federal-level advocacy. The session underscored that while the system is broken by choice, it can be rebuilt by choice—through collective power and persistence.
The webinar recording can be found here.
The presentation slides can be found here.
For more information or to get involved with future sessions, contact Dee Ross at [email protected].