People arrive at a shelter after the passage of hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, on September 19.

People arrive at a shelter after the passage of hurricane Fiona in Salinas, Puerto Rico, on September 19. JOSE RODRIGUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

More than 60% of Puerto Ricans Seeking FEMA Aid After Hurricane Maria Had Their Applications Denied – Will The Agency Approve More This Time?

Within two weeks of Hurricane Fiona, FEMA had accepted most Puerto Rican housing aid applications. Nearly all those early approvals cover only $700 in assistance and won’t pay the tab for rebuilding.

CC BY-ND

The Federal Emergency Management Agency rejected 60.5% of the 1.1 million applications Puerto Ricans filed for housing assistance after Hurricane Maria devastated the territory in 2017.

As I explained in an article published in Housing Policy Debate, an academic journal, FEMA used 41 different reasons when it declined a total of 77,000 applicants. The top reason: homeowners lacked legal titles to their properties. Without their names on the deeds, they had no way to prove that they were the true owners of the storm-damaged or destroyed homes.

Other reasons FEMA gave included that it deemed damage to be insufficient or that two households had filed with the same address – which often happens with housing constructed without building permits, architects or engineers.

Five years after Hurricane Maria, I believe the inability of those homeowners to get federal aid surely increased the impact of Fiona, a massive storm that struck Puerto Rico on Sept. 18, 2022. When community leaders assessed the damage, they encountered hundreds of homes still covered with old blue tarps because they never got a new roof after Maria.

As an urban planner who has researched disaster recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, I see those tarps as evidence that FEMA declined applications that it should have accepted. I’m monitoring the agency to see if that happens again this time.

Greatest need but least likely to get help

FEMA offers financial and housing aid after disasters to qualified households who are uninsured or whose insurance won’t cover the full cost of rebuilding. Unfortunately, in Puerto Rico and other places that are especially prone to hurricanes and other disasters, the most vulnerable residents may lack the documentation they need to secure that help.

After Hurricane Harvey soaked Texas in 2017, causing about US$125 billion in damage, FEMA rejected 30% of Texans’ housing aid applications because those households lacked deeds with their names printed on them.

Similarly, after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, FEMA denied 20,000 applicants who had long occupied homes they’d inherited from relatives without ever getting their homeownership paperwork sorted out.

Some workarounds

To be clear, FEMA can legally accept other forms of documentation as proof of ownership when it considers aid applications.

If there’s no definitive deed, applicants can produce receipts for home repairs or renovations or letters from government agencies verifying residence.

Following advocacy efforts in Puerto Rico, FEMA released new guidance in 2021 with simplified rules for demonstrating homeownership – such as allowing homeowners to make sworn statements.

But at this point, it isn’t clear that FEMA is informing applicants across the United States of alternative ways they can prove ownership. Lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would make the agency work harder to assist all disaster survivors who are eligible for its aid.

After Fiona

Puerto Ricans appear to be applying more rapidly for FEMA aid after Fiona than they did following Maria.

The agency received nearly 1 million requests for housing aid during the first two weeks it was accepting applications, according to Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit that is assisting its Puerto Rican counterparts by sifting through early data to see if federal funds are reaching the most vulnerable households there. FEMA is already authorized to spend $79.4 million on aid.

As of Oct. 18, 2022, FEMA had found 88% of those applicants to be eligible for its assistance, according to Texas Appleseed. But nearly all the approved applicants had received only $700 – the standard amount disbursed as FEMA’s Critical Needs Assistance, which is a onetime payment intended to cover minor expenses incurred amid temporary duress.

Unless they succeed after filing an appeal with FEMA, disaster survivors who get this one-time aid receive no further assistance.

Eager to quickly get that $700, Puerto Rican FEMA aid applicants are leaving out crucial information – such as the degree of damage to their homes – that could lead to much more support, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group.

If they were to get a home inspection, they would need to wait longer for aid but could potentially get up to $37,900 in housing assistance.

It is possible that many applicants will get more aid later, which would cover at least part of the cost of rebuilding their homes. At this point, it’s too soon to know whether FEMA will take a more comprehensive approach when it considers which Puerto Rican homeowners should be eligible for those funds.

The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.