NLIHC’s Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition convenes and supports 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.
FEMA
FEMA released on May 17 the “COVID-19 Pandemic Operational Guidance: All-Hazards Incident Response and Recovery,” a document to help emergency managers plan for disaster response and recovery while adhering to public health guidelines concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. FEMA is offering a series of webinars on the pandemic operational guidance throughout June.
Congress
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell on May 13 regarding ongoing challenges with FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program (IHP). The letter states that FEMA’s “disturbingly low” approval rate of individual assistance applications seemingly runs counter to the agency’s mission of “helping people before, during, and after disasters.” To ensure FEMA is better aiding individuals after disasters, the letter asks Administrator Criswell to respond to several significant questions and concerns raised by the committee about FEMA’s IHP.
The “Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act” was reintroduced in the House of Representatives on May 17. The legislation addresses the significant title-documentation challenges that have resulted in thousands of eligible disaster survivors being wrongfully denied FEMA assistance. The legislation would provide a new framework to make it easier for disaster survivors to prove residency in disaster-impacted areas or homeownership, either by completing a “declarative statement” form or by submitting a broader range of acceptable documents in lieu of a formal title to property or leases. The Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act was introduced by Representative Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and unanimously approved by the House of Representatives in November 2020.
Major Flooding in South Central U.S.
At least five people are believed to have died amid devastating storms in Louisiana that have flooded roads, homes, and businesses. Lake Charles is still recovering from back-to-back hurricanes last year and the severe winter storm in February. “It was just a few weeks ago that President Biden was in Lake Charles to discuss infrastructure and hurricane recovery and here we are with another natural disaster that has set back those recovery efforts,” said Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, who declared a State of Emergency on Monday (5/19) evening, allowing state resources to be used to aid local storm-response efforts.
The Advocate reports that the storms have inundated streets, stranded residents, and flooded hundreds of homes in Lake Charles. “We know that the amount of rain that portions of the City of Lake Charles sustained today will absolutely eclipse what we received from Hurricane Laura and will probably come close to what we received for Hurricane Delta,” said Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter. Mayor Hunter said at least 400 to 500 homes were affected by the floodwaters, and the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office estimates up to 600 people were displaced by the storm. The city is still waiting for a supplemental disaster relief package to help the region recover from the back-to-back hurricanes last year.
Advocacy and Research
The Center for Disaster Philanthropy held a webinar on “System Racism: Disasters Expose It – How Do We Address it?” on May 13. You can access the fully captioned webinar recording and slide deck.
The Pew Charitable Trusts and the American Flood Coalition have created a new partnership to help states prepare for and adapt to natural disasters. The State Resilience Partnership convenes a broad range of stakeholders to evaluate and promote best practices in state-level resilience planning to natural disasters.
The National Hazards Center published a report, “Baseline Data to Support Safe Communities, Healthy Ecosystems, and a Rejuvenated Future,” written by Kristina Peterson, Lowlander Center facilitator, and Julie Maldonado, associate director for the Livelihood Knowledge Exchange Network. The authors gathered baseline data to better understand hazardous risks in the locations affected by hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Zeta. The hurricanes are the latest in a history of layered disasters and co-occurring injustices to hit communities in Louisiana. The researchers sought to gather data that can be used to support the informed decision-making of individuals, families, and communities about their future well-being.