New FEMA rules aim to cut red tape

Disaster recovery has been slow, bureaucratic

By: Rebecca Santana
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Anyone who has lived through a natural disaster and then applied to the federal government for assistance knows that it can be a lengthy, frustration and bureaucratic process. New rules announced Friday [01/19/2024] by the federal agency in charge of emergency management aim to simplify and speed up the process.
..... With natural disasters now affecting more people across the United States, insurance markets in many stats are buckling under the weight of payouts to those hit by wildfires and hurricanes.
..... Deanne Criswell, who heads the Federal Em regency Management Agency, said the changes, going into effect in March, [2024] are designed to make it easier for disaster survivors to get help - a challenge for those often struggling to recover from the worst day of their lives.
.... "Mother Nature is not letting up," Criswell said to reporters on a call announcing the changes. "We need to be better repaired and better informed to recover from natural disasters faster and more effectively."
..... Criswell described the changes as the "most comprehensive updated to our individual assistance program in 20 years. She said the changes were the result of a huge amount of feedback from survivors, organizations that work in disaster recovery, and elected officials.
..... Here are some of the changes outlined by FEMA:

Help for homeowners with not enough insurance

..... Under previous rules, homeowners who had received payments from their insurance company for home repairs but not enough to over all of the damage were essentially out of luck when it came to getting help form FEMA. Now those homeowners can apply to FEMA for help.
...... Criswell gave an example of a homeowner who has $80,000 in damage but received only $45,000 from the insurance company. Previously, FEMA couldn't help them beasties their insurance payout already exceeded the agency's assistance cap of $42,500 per disaster. Now, that homeowner can get money form the agency to make up the difference.
..... This rule change comes at a time when homeowners in places like Louisiana, Florida, and California are facing sky-rocking deductibles and fights with insurance companies over damage assessments that have made it difficult even for people with insurance to recover from hurricanes or wildfires.
..... Samantha L. Montano, an assistant professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, called tis change a "pretty massive internal shift" and questioned why it hadn't been done before. She said survivors are increasingly receiving estimates form insurance companies that are much lower than the cost of repairs or inspectors saying that the damage was preexisting and as such not coved. That leaves homeowners increasingly in the position that they have to sue their insurance company or figure out how to make up the difference on their own.

Getting rid of the loan rule

..... Under previous rules, disaster survivors first had to apply for a loan with the Small Business Administration and get rejected before they could apply for FEMA assistance Criswell said survivors found the SBA application requirement "confusing and challenging," so the agency is eliminating that requirement.
..... Al Cathey, who was mayor of Mexico Beach, Florida, when Hurricane Michael levels almost every building in the Panhandle beach town in 2018, said he welcomed the changes given the bureaucracy and paperwork he encountered when he went to apply for an SBA loan for his destroyed hardware store.
..... After going to a trailer where SBA workers handed him a large packet of papers, and seeing how many people he would have to be interviewed by to get the loan, he decided it wasn't worth it even though he was about $200,000 short of the money needed to reopen the store.
..... "I got frustrated with them myself. I didn't want to get involved with all that government red tape," Cathey said Friday. [01/19/2024] "I understand the need for guidelines and policies, but, the need for paperwork they wanted from me to start the approval process. This was a disaster, but you would think they thought i wanted the money for a vacation."

Changes to critical needs assistance

..... The agency has had something called critical needs assistance, currently $750, that survivors can sue for whatever they need right after a disaster: baby formula or food, for example. But states or tribal nations had to specifically request that category of assistance, and it was only done on a case-by-case basis
..... Now, anytime a disaster is declared that includes FEMA's individual assistance funding stream, those $750 payments will be available. Survivors still have to apply, and there is some vetting to prevent fraud. But it bypasses the application that states and tribal nations had to make. that doesn't mean that every disaster will include these payments. Many declared disasters are more limited in scope.

Other changes

..... Disaster survivors with disabilities can use FEMA money to make changes to their homes to make theme more accessible, whereas under previous rules the agency would only pay to rebuild things that had been damaged in the disaster. People with preexisting problems in their home, like a leaky roof, can now get money from the agency to fix the house. Currently, the agency requires that if it is giving people money to fix something, it had to have worked before the disaster.
..... And FEMA is creating a new category of aid called displacement assistance, designed to help those who can't return to their home. It gives them money for housing while they're looking for a longterm rental and has flexibility so that they can, for example, use the money to pay a friend's utilities if they're crashing on a couch.

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