A new study by researchers at Texas Appleseed and the University of Michigan, “In the Aftermath of the Storm: Administrative Burden in Disaster Recovery,” investigates residents’ experiences with a federal disaster housing assistance program in Marion County, South Carolina. The researchers evaluated how administrative burden – i.e., onerous requirements and procedures – in a FEMA housing assistance program impacted application rates and program perception among community members following three different disasters (a flood and two major hurricanes). The study finds that many registrants were denied disaster housing assistance and that applicants experienced high levels of administrative burden throughout the application process. These experiences, in addition to the inefficient disbursal of federal aid, caused many individuals to refrain from applying to the program again following subsequent disasters.
The research for the study was conducted after a flood in 2015, Hurricane Matthew in 2016, and Hurricane Florence in 2016 – each a disaster that impacted Marion County. Marion County’s residents are 57% Black, and approximately 25% of residents live in poverty. The researchers focused on residents’ experiences with FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program (IHP), which repairs and replaces homes for disaster victims, including both renters and homeowners. To assess the extent and impact of administrative burden on residents, the researchers conducted a series of interviews with community leaders and heads of low-income households. The researchers also drew on data gathered by FEMA and the American Community Survey to supplement their findings.
Following each of the three disasters impacting Marion County, FEMA rejected a significant share of disaster housing relief applications. FEMA denied assistance to 80%, 61%, and 59% of all valid applicants in the county following the 2015 flood, Hurricane Matthew, and Hurricane Florence, respectively. The high shares of denials were observed by community leaders, who noted that high rates of denials sowed distrust between FEMA and community members. Between Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018, the number of IHP applicants declined by roughly half. Interviews with program volunteers suggest this decline was potentially a result of previous applicants declining to re-register after being denied assistance.
Many of the requirements for accessing disaster housing assistance posed significant barriers to residents applying for aid. Community leaders and program volunteers noted that many applicants were rejected for not having homeownership documentation because a large portion of the county’s residents had inherited their homes without proper legal paperwork. These properties, referred to as “heir’s properties,” are especially common among Black households in the South. Another procedural obstacle was the need to learn very quickly about a complex program in order to participate, including details concerning eligibility criteria and application window timelines.
The research finds that through a combination of high rejection rates, cumbersome procedural requirements for eligibility, and slowness in the disbursal of aid funds, the federal government created a feedback loop that depressed applications for disaster relief. Residents who were unable to receive disaster housing assistance on their first attempt were disincentivized to apply for assistance again due to distrust and a general lack of faith in FEMA and the federal government. The authors call on federal disaster relief agencies to address excessive administrative burden, high rejection rates, and bureaucratic slowness in order to improve the efficiency and success of future disaster relief programs.
Read the article at: https://bit.ly/3VYf95n