The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition is convening and supporting disaster-impacted communities to ensure that federal disaster recovery efforts reach all impacted households, including the lowest-income and most marginalized people who are often the hardest-hit by disasters and have the fewest resources to recover.
Learn more about the DHRC’s policy recommendations here.
Hurricanes Laura & Delta
Nearly five months after Hurricanes Laura and Delta, tens of thousands of people are still displaced, with many having to move several times or still living in tents. As of mid-December, more than 1,000 people remained in hotel rooms in the wake of the hurricanes.
Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter sent a letter to FEMA on December 26, expressing frustration with the agency’s lag in providing adequate housing for the 2,000 Calcasieu residents needing temporary housing after Hurricanes Laura and Delta. “Every day we have more bureaucracy and red tape and it’s another day that someone is sitting, missing home, missing their family, waiting to come back to a job that is here in Lake Charles, so we need to move quickly,” said Mayor Hunter.
Wildfires in the West
More than 30% of families within the Phoenix-Talent School District lost their homes in the Almeda Fire, and with COVID-19 school closures, families were left struggling to continue distance learning amid the chaos. Many of the 700 students’ families who lost their homes are Latino immigrants living in multigenerational housing who faced an added language barrier.