On behalf of the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) of more than 800 national, state, and local organizations, NLIHC submitted a statement for the record for the March 13 hearing, “Improving the Federal Response: Perspectives on the State of Emergency Management,” convened by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (see Memo 3/18). The statement urges the committee to hold FEMA accountable for its repeated failures to address the housing needs of the lowest-income survivors, improve data transparency policies, and ensure special needs populations have access to crucial response and recovery assistance.
The statement argues that a top priority after every disaster should be to ensure all displaced families have safe, accessible, and affordable places to live while they get back on their feet. Over the past two years, however, FEMA has repeatedly failed to address the housing needs of the lowest-income families. As a result, vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, people experiencing homelessness, and other individuals are forced to live in unhealthy, unsafe, and unaffordable homes, making it more difficult for them to fully recover. In the worst cases, they become homelessness. The lack of data transparency at FEMA directly complicates federal, state, and local disaster responses, resulting in worsened inequality and inequity. The DHRC provides a number of recommendations for Congress and FEMA to address these issues and ensure the housing needs of low-income disaster survivors are met.
Read the full statement at: https://bit.ly/2U0ddgf