- Hello everyone.
Thank you for joining us today.
We're excited to bring you this training as part
of the first ever disaster resilience awareness month.
Throughout the month of March Equal Justice Works
is teaming up with different legal aid organizations who
are then collaborating with a diverse group
of subject matter experts to spread awareness
about disaster related issues, share resources
for disaster preparedness, as well as recovery efforts.
So for more information on that
and to help us spread the awareness
be sure to follow EGW on Twitter and Facebook.
This discussion today is brought to you
by Disability Rights Texas
and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
And we will be focusing on disaster housing options.
If you have any questions or comments for us,
please feel free to post them
and we will answer them as we can.
Okay, so let's get started.
Today like I said, we're lucky
and very appreciative to collaborate
with National Low Income Housing Coalition
specifically, Noah Patton.
Noah first and foremost,
is an advocate for safe housing and disasters.
And professionally is known as a housing policy analyst
for National Low Income Housing Coalition.
So, let's first ask Noah
about what is the National Low Income Housing Coalition
and their mission.
- Yeah, happy to be here
and happy to talk with y'all about this important subject.
So to answer your question
the National Low Income Housing Coalition
is first and foremost dedicated solely
to achieving socially just public policy that ensures people
with the lowest incomes in the U S
have affordable and decent homes.
Our members, because we are an actual coalition,
our members include state and local housing coalitions,
residents of public and assisted housing,
nonprofit housing providers, homeless service providers,
fair housing organizations, researchers,
public housing agencies, and the like.
While our members include the spectrum
of housing interests, we're unique
at least in like the DC sector I guess,
in that we don't represent any single segment
of the housing industry.
So rather we just focus on policy and funding improvements
for extremely low income folks who receive
and those who need federal assistance.
Why we do disaster stuff is because NLIHC leads
to Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition, which is a group
of more than 850 national state and local organizations
including many working directly
with disaster impacted communities
with firsthand experience recovering after disasters.
The DHRC works to ensure
that federal disaster recovery efforts reach
all impacted households,
including the lowest income seniors,
folks with disabilities, families with children, veterans,
people experiencing homelessness
and other at-risk populations who are often the hardest hit
by disasters and have the fewest resources
to recover afterwards.
So that's just kind of a layout of where NLIHC is
and where the DHRC,
the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition stands.
- Okay, so while you don't provide direct services
for individuals, obviously you're the leading expert
in what disaster housing should look like so--
- Indeed.
- I guess just explain a little bit more for people,
what is disaster housing obviously we're talking about
in times of disasters but specifically
what does that look like?
- Yeah, so disaster housing is, or at least it needs to be
a central part of how we as a country respond
to climate disasters.
So it's basically how we ensure that the survivors
of a disaster, all of them hopefully
have access to long-term permanent homes
after the disaster recovery ends.
Now because of the ongoing housing crisis,
when a disaster knocks out housing,
whether it's rented housing or own owned outright
by the residency, it creates a very real danger
that folks will be unable to access housing again.
And we've seen that in places like Northern California,
where folks have lost their homes in 2017s campfire
but are still being forced to live out on the streets.
So that's basically what what disaster housing aims for.
And I can also just go into how we fail at that goal
so far in this country's disaster response system so far.
- Yes so let's talk about a little bit more
of the granular pieces
and what options are specific for those that are impacted
by a disaster and may be displaced or have home damage.
So let's start with, okay, so we have homeowners
and then we have renters.
But then we also have short-term assistance,
and then long-term,
so let's start with the short term.
What kind of options could be available
for somebody who's been impacted by a disaster?
- Yeah, so I can start kind of straight out.
I actually, it makes almost more sense to talk first
about like emergency sheltering first, right?
Cause that's the place where you go, you need to leave,
there's an evacuation order and you need to go somewhere.
You can't stay in the place that you're living,
if you're unhoused, you can't stay
at the place where you have been residing.
So that's like the, where do I go?
And a lot of folks view it as kind of
the big public gymnasium with cots set up by the Red Cross.
And there's some real issues there
in terms of disability access,
in terms of how they treat unhoused folks
at those at those shelters
'cause they can face discrimination.
But I did wanna note just during COVID,
we've been kind of moving away from that kind
of like large gymnasium space because obviously
that's a public health risk
and we've been moving towards kind
of this hotel what they call non congregate sheltering.
Which is basically just like a room
with a door for survivors to stay in.
And that's mostly come in the form of hotels
and things like that.
And that was successfully done
during this last hurricane season.
Folks were moved into hotels that would have normally been
in that high school gymnasium.
And specifically in terms of, I guess, moving to short-term,
what does short-term housing look like?
Short term housing is kind of the,
so you've been sheltered in a disaster recovery shelter.
And then you go back to the place where you were living
and that place is now no longer habitable.
So that's kind of where the short-term housing comes in.
And FEMA has been currently using primarily
it's a combination of you might get rental assistance
to stay in a rental home in the area
while FEMA kind of like assesses your eligibility
for future assistance from the agency.
So you could receive rental assistance.
A lot of times FEMA utilizes
this transitional shelter program
which is like paying for hotel rooms
for folks coming out directly
out of those emergency shelters.
And I did wanna note just for folks
that are utilizing that transitional shelter program,
that program does not cover,
it covers the cost of the hotel,
but oftentimes it doesn't cover like the incidental costs
and things like that.
So it is important to remember that you may be required
to put down a credit card when you access that program
or something like that.
And in addition, folks have been evicted
in as little as two weeks from their hotels
after they access that.
So it's important to remember, to always keep in mind
that they're going on two weekend increments
for staying in that hotel.
In addition to the hotel stays and the rental assistance
there's also this direct temporary housing
which a lot of folks, I think colloquially known
as FEMA trailers as it were.
And FEMA utilizes that
when there's not enough rental housing in the area
for everybody that lost their homes in the disaster.
And so it takes a, so it sounds pretty good.
There have been issues in the past with like the quality
of the trailers and how much the government spent
on the trailers.
However, it also takes a very long time to set up.
So I kind of almost hesitate to label it
as a short term housing program
because instead of utilizing like County fairgrounds
or other mobile home parks to put those units in their,
FEMA will select a location somewhere in the disaster area
and just build a mobile home park on it.
So they'll need to like hookup sewage, hookup power,
hookup water and things like that
which takes a very long time.
So that option is almost kind of looking more
towards the long-term recovery
as opposed to like a short term solution.
Now we've been at NLIHC we've been pushing
this disaster housing assistance program
which used to be utilized by FEMA
but has not in the recent past.
And it basically would provide
like housing vouchers immediately
to disaster survivors to utilize the disaster,
those vouchers are portable.
So folks can kind of move out of the disaster area
and stay close to their their support networks,
stay close to their family and friends
and things like that and utilize that.
But that push is still ongoing
but that's kind of the solutions that you'd see
in terms of short-term housing first and foremost.
- Right and I would like to say
that we'll have another session just dealing with FEMA
because that is a whole other insti in and of itself
especially with accessibility issues for individuals
with disabilities limited English proficiency.
So be sure to keep looking for those updates as well.
But back to the actual housing options.
So like you said, it's not, when we say short-term,
it's relative, this isn't happening over night.
This is just short term relative to the disaster phases,
but yes, it's transitional, whether it's direct housing
or FEMA rental assistance
but then we go into long-term recovery
which is more directed, I guess, at homeowners I guess
if you wanna say that right Noah?
So I guess if you could talk about that kind of specific
what would options be for homeowners
in the long-term recovery process?
- Yeah, for sure.
So first off that transition from short-term
to long-term is pretty rough.
And it's rough because
the biggest federal assistance program
for longterm housing recovery
which is the Community Development Block Grant
Disaster Recovery Program, or CDBGDR
they don't let you be a disaster advocate
until you can say that three times quickly.
But the issue with CDBGDR
which is run through HUD, Housing and Urban Development,
is that it's not a officially authorized program.
So every time there's a disaster
in terms of long-term recovery, you have to wait
around for Congress to pass, to appropriate a bunch
of money into that program and say, all right Texas
is going to get $50 million through the CDBGDR program.
And then HUD has to from scratch, publish all
of the rules and regulations that govern that program.
So it's hard for like state local folks to anticipate that
and even for disaster survivors to anticipate like
what they're going to get.
Because it can, 'cause CDBGDR covers a wide range
of things like CDBG Corona virus covered advertisements
on the New York subway system for tourism
and things like that.
So it also kind of comes down to what your state
and local government is willing to spend the money on
which is kind of a job for us as advocates to push.
But I will say that that gap, that the length
of time it takes to get that money out the door means
that a lot of FEMA programs will stop or timeout
before that long-term recovery assistance kicks on from HUD.
So that's a substantial issue and it's an issue to keep
in mind that that transition is not smooth
there will be gaps.
I think a study just came out
and said that the average is 3.8 years
for long-term recovery funding to reach
a disaster recovery area.
So that kind of gives you an idea of that.
But when the money does finally reach disaster survivors,
that pays for things like home repairs, home replacement,
and it can also, and home repairs and replacement
for homeowners.
And in terms of folks that are renting,
it also can spur the creation of additional rental housing
and things like that, which broadly lowered the rents
for the entire disaster area and can provide units
for those folks that are still displaced
by disaster to move to.
So that's been going on like right now.
Again to use Northern California as an example,
that those projects utilizing CDBGDR money are ongoing
still from 2017 but they will replace some
of the last affordable housing units
that were burned down by fire.
- Okay so let's talk about in blue sky times when
we're not actually in disasters obviously y'all advocate
for safe, affordable housing,
what kind of programs, or how do housing programs play
into a disaster, especially when there's such a shortage
of people are on wait-list, or if they're in public housing
and are displaced, if you could just kind of
give a general overview on that
or if there are options after disaster,
if you've lost your home and wanting to get
or need access to those programs.
- Yeah, I'll say in terms of coordination,
it none comes to mind,
in terms of how like existing permanent housing
or like housing assistance
and homeless services groups kind of play
into the broad emergency management sector.
And that's because a lot of times FEMA is like
in a tug of war with the states over like who has priority
on housing recovery, and neither one of them wants to do it.
But so oftentimes those permanent supportive housing groups
like they've lost units just as much as the general public,
the supportive services and everything,
like they've taken hits from disaster damage.
They have staffers that have needed to evacuate
and things like that.
So oftentimes directly after a disaster
is not the best time to try
and kind of get connected with that.
They, do do a heroic job in attempting
to still provide those services
but oftentimes at least in terms of unhoused folks,
oftentimes like the organizations that serve them
can't handle that rapid influx of people
that are now unhoused due to the disaster
on top of the population
that they were initially dealing with prior to the disaster.
So it's really tough
and that's like one of our policy points
is that emergency managers and FEMA need to figure out
a way to coordinate their response
with those organizations to ensure
that it's better because there really isn't
that interplay that you would assume would exist
after a disaster.
Now there's also groups like mutual aid groups
which are kind of more casual organizations
that pop up after a disaster.
And they've been doing things like during the winter storm
this year in Texas, they've been doing things
like purchasing hotel rooms for those that need it
and things like that.
So they are around and I'd encourage folks to,
if they're not getting, if they're running into roadblocks
from federal or state resource programs
to seek those folks out because that's their bread
and butter is covering the gaps
that the eligibility requirements and whatnot
that the federal government creates.
So there is a little bit of help there,
but oftentimes that long-term recovery money
is going directly to the housing providers to try
and rebuild their units and rebuild their housing units
and things like that.
Additionally, in terms of housing vouchers, like source
of income can oftentimes get,
source of income discrimination
can oftentimes increase after a disaster.
You know, it can the loss of rental stock
often drives up rental prices.
So sometimes the vouchers don't necessarily cover all
of the rent anymore.
And a lot of HUD programs kind of utilize rental costs
from pre disaster times.
And instead post- disaster times so it's tough,
but there is progress being made
in terms of those conversations and things like that.
And so I would say that that's a great place
that if you do not live in the disaster area to assist
and donate money to are those housing programs.
- That's always greatly appreciated.
So that kinda goes into our next part.
If individuals, if we're in blue sky times
what can I do, one to prepare?
And then if it's an a disaster
where can I go to seek help or know their rights?
- Yeah, for sure.
So FEMA recommends, I think it's up to a thousand dollars
in cash now, maybe $500 to $1000.
Every household having $500 in cash in their home
somewhere in case of a disaster at some point.
But of course, a lot of the households that we advocate
for it NLIHC that would be a pretty heavy lift
and I'm not sure I would want that much cash lying
around my home.
So in the alternative, you can do things like ensuring that
if you're a renter, ensuring that you have a written lease
or at least some sort of written agreement
with your landlord, because FEMA will need to see
some sort of proof of residency
at a disaster damage location in order for you
to get assistance.
You can be more familiar with your local price gouging laws,
which I know Texas has and I've seen
during this winter storm, a lot of issues
with like hotel pricing, with hotels jacking up the prices.
And additionally, like eviction laws.
Some localities have eviction laws that prevent you
from being removed from a unit
if a disaster declaration is issued.
A lot of places that need those laws don't
but they do exist in some places.
And connecting with groups ahead of time,
like disability rights, Texas,
or Texas RioGrande Legal Aid or Texas Appleseed,
they'll really have a lot of material
that goes into specifically about housing and evictions
and what kind of protections there are for you
in your area.
In terms of homeowners first and foremost,
like FEMA will zero in
on whether you have flood insurance
and they will be concerned about that regardless
of whether there was a flood or a hurricane.
'Cause at times that level of storm surge
can count as flooding.
And if you don't have flood insurance for your home,
that can be a substantial issue
with accessing those benefits.
Additionally, a lot of folks
especially like in indigenous communities
and in black or Brown communities
have informal title documents
or they may be owning their home
through heirs property or something like that.
And that is a substantial issue
with accessing any sort of government assistance
because FEMA will really require, will zero in on needing
to see that title document to prove
that you actually own the home that you are saying
that you do.
I think that's absurd and I think FEMA spends
much too much time focusing on waste, fraud and abuse,
as opposed to actually ensuring that accessing
those programs are easy.
But a thing that you can do ahead of time
in blue sky times is find your lease, if you have it,
make sure that you have a duplicate copy of it.
If you do know that you have clouded title,
now might be the best time to talk
to legal aid organizations and try and get
that process rolling because it does take a long time
and it is slightly pricey as well.
So it's better to kind of space that out
and not have to handle all of that on top of recovering
from a disaster at the same time.
In terms of where to go, so typically
they have, what's called VOADs
Volunteer Organizations, Active on Disasters, or VOADs
and that's like the Red Cross.
There's also a couple religious based organizations
that do that work.
So they will be hopefully in your community,
they will be setting up shelters,
they will be talking to folks about it,
and they'll probably be your primary first contact
with any sort of like disaster recovery organization,
immediately after the disaster.
In addition, I did wanna note,
I know that that I have already harped on FEMA's worry
about fraud, waste and abuse,
but there are folks that do go around claiming
to be FEMA representatives when they are not.
So make sure that you do, if somebody comes up to you
and claims to be FEMA, make sure that they have an ID badge,
they have FEMA ID basically
that they can show you to make sure that that's okay.
And especially, so with any sort of contractor
that might come to your house
and say, Oh I'll take care of that
for a certain amount of money.
And FEMA will pay for it.
Hold up on that and make sure that you talk
to a FEMA representative before you believe any of that.
In addition, I'd say, talk to your kinship net,
what we call kinship networks
or your where your family or friends,
or who's in your neighborhood that kind of has it together
and is kind of reacting to the disaster
so y'all can react together.
Oftentimes those groups kind of come together
really informally out of like the local church
or the local community organization
and they'll, a couple of guys with chainsaws will be able
to clear the road a little bit quicker
than if folks are waiting around for state
or local assistance.
Stay safe and follow the authorities directions
but feel free to take a stab at that.
I think that's one of my,
I guess if I could say favorite parts of disaster work
is actually seeing folks come together
and kind of informally create those structures
'cause we can take care of ourselves, we're good folks.
So that's also I think a method would be
if you have water making sure
that your neighbors have water,
if you know that there are older folks on your block
or folks living with disabilities that need
to be checked up on, checkup on them,
make sure they have the stuff they need.
And that kind of both emotionally provide support
as well as very real support on the ground.
- Great so thank you so much for that.
And I think I just wanna highlight that
for those of you that are watching in blue sky times
just know that there are ways to prepare.
If you're a renter, have your lease,
if you're a homeowner, know your insurance policies,
if you don't have insurance policy, know your options.
In the event of a disaster, plan.
Make make your plan whether you're evacuating
or sheltering in a place that you can sustain
whatever plan you have.
But bigger picture is that you have protections.
If you are displaced, your home is damaged,
whether you're a renter or a homeowner
there are things out there to help and assist you.
So make sure you're looking at trusted resources whether
it's National Low Income Housing Coalition's website,
or information coming out or local legal aid organizations
or other organizations out there advocating
on your behalf in whichever shape or form.
So you're not alone.
There are things out there
and that's kind of the whole point of this series
is to help build that resiliency
within communities at the local levels
and know that there are things out there to help.
So Noah, any last words of wisdom?
- I'd just say, hang in there.
Remember to I'd say the next time you see,
is a good blue sky recommendation would be,
if you see any sort of public comment meeting
about a disaster recovery, about mitigation
or anything please go, I know they're boring
and they were very long.
They're very long and boring for me as well.
But you know just making sure that your local officials kind
of know where you're at, know what your needs are
and what you're expecting of them
when disaster strikes can be so important.
- Well, thank you, Noah.
Thank you National Low Income Housing Coalition,
and we look forward to answering
and helping in any way we can.
- Of course.