Sneak Preview: FEMA, HUD Working on Homeless Plans for Disasters
(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) anticipate completing work plans by early fall designed to implement cross-agency strategies to strengthen coordination among homelessness, public health and emergency management agencies in cases of disaster, in response to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report recommendation.
People experiencing homelessness, who may be in shelters, tents or encampments, can be particularly vulnerable and most severely affected by a disaster. According to GAO, no federal financial assistance program is specifically designed to address the housing needs of the homeless population in a disaster, as disaster assistance programs generally are designed to serve homeowners or renters. However, FEMA’s Public Assistance (PA) program can provide this population with emergency shelter that is broadly available as part of its disaster response to an entire community. In addition, HUD Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program recipients can use program funds to provide the homeless population with housing assistance, such as transitional and permanent supportive housing.
GAO found that recipients of funding under these programs reported certain challenges in assisting people experiencing homelessness. For example, some PA recipients told GAO that the program’s reimbursement system requires an organization to pay up front for costs that may not be reimbursed. They also noted that tracking and providing the required documentation after a disaster can be difficult, and explained that private nonprofit organizations may be eligible to receive PA funding, but they first must apply for Small Business Association loans and other disaster assistance before requesting PA funds.
Likewise for the CDBG-DR program, recipients told GAO that changing regulations due to the temporary authority of CDBG-DR funding make planning for CDBG-DR use challenging. Unlike other disaster assistance programs, CDBG-DR lacks permanent authority and regulations, and requires that HUD issue customized grant requirements for each disaster, which can hinder the process of disbursing CDBG-DR funds. HUD officials told GAO that they need to train grantees on the new requirements, and grantees must adjust their processes as necessary.
The report addressed two other HUD homelessness programs that may be used to provide housing assistance to people experiencing homelessness in the event of a disaster — the Continuum of Care (CoC) program, which provides recipients with funding for supportive services and housing for those experiencing homelessness who are eligible to receive assistance, and the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG), which provides grants to state, local and territorial governments to assist those experiencing homelessness through various eligible activities, including emergency shelter, temporary housing and homelessness prevention.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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