View or download a PDF of the letter here.

March 1, 2022 

The Honorable Chuck Schumer
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510 

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510 

The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510 

The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510 

To Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McConnell, and Minority  Leader McCarthy: 

We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to quickly enact “Housing Survivors of  Major Disasters Act” (H.R.3037) introduced by Representative Espaillat (D-NY) and  Senator Warren (D-MA). This legislation will help ensure that all disaster survivors  receive the assistance for which they are eligible. We ask that this important, bipartisan  legislation be included in any final appropriations bill or other must-pass package. 

Millions of disaster survivors across the country are facing catastrophic, life-threatening,  extreme weather events, including stronger hurricanes, extreme heat, unprecedented  drought, and severe wildfires. However, America’s lowest-income and most  marginalized households are often the hardest-hit by disasters and have the fewest  resources to recover afterwards. Despite the clear need, these households frequently  face unnecessary and preventable barriers to accessing the resources they need to  recover. 

FEMA’s long-standing requirement that survivors provide title documentation to prove  ownership of their homes has resulted in thousands of survivors being wrongfully  denied this critical assistance. Since at least 1995 until just a few months ago, this  requirement barred many of the lowest-income survivors, including owners of mobile  homes and other low-income homeowners who may not have updated title  documentation, from receiving the assistance for which they are eligible. 

This preventable barrier disproportionately harms Black, Latino, and low-income disaster survivors. It is estimated that over a third of Black-owned land in the South is  passed down informally – meaning that it becomes heirs’ property, a form of ownership  in which families hold property without clear title. As a result, non-white residents of the  region have been disproportionally denied FEMA assistance. A Washington Post report found that FEMA denied up to 35% of applicants in one Alabama county due to the lack  of title documents. More than 77,000 survivors in Puerto Rico were wrongfully denied  assistance by FEMA for this reason after Hurricane Maria.

Mobile home park and manufactured housing residents also experience substantial  barriers that prevent access to their title documents. Residents frequently do not receive  title documentation when the mobile home is delivered, and title documents are often  held by mobile park owners rather than the owners of the home. Manufactured housing  ownership rates are high in areas that experienced disasters in 2021 such as Alabama,  California, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee. For example, over  103,000 households in the path of Hurricane Laura live in manufactured housing. 

In 2021, FEMA announced reforms to address this long-standing barrier. Under FEMA’s  new policy, these survivors can now self-certify ownership of their homes when they do  not have other documentation, overcoming a major hurdle to recovery. FEMA will also  allow all survivors to submit a broader array of documents to prove occupancy and  ownership of their homes. 

However, these changes would not be retroactive to survivors of past disasters and  agency guidance remains murky – requiring a legislative fix. In FEMA’s National  Advisory Council 2021 December report, the council wrote that: “The actions taken by  FEMA to expand the documentation requirements for home occupancy and ownership  through the policy changes to the Individual Assistance Program and Policy Guide is a  major step toward removing systemic barriers that disproportionately affect historically  underserved and marginalized groups. These changes, however, are administrative and  can easily be rolled back, modified, or completely undone by future Administrations.” 

The Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act was unanimously passed by both the  House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and on the House floor. If enacted,  it will protect and expand FEMA’s recent policy changes, ensuring that all  survivors receive the assistance for which they are eligible by:  

• Requiring FEMA to allow survivors to use declaration statements to establish  ownership of their properties when formal documents are unavailable; • Requiring FEMA to create a standardized declaration statement that can be  accepted in disaster areas across the country; 
• Requiring FEMA to make declaration statements available at Disaster  Recovery Centers and on FEMA’s webpage for use during future disasters; • Increasing the number and types of documents that can be used to prove  residency, including utility bills, pay stubs, drivers’ licenses, and school  registrations; and 
• Requiring FEMA to reopen and review applications for assistance that were denied in several recent major disasters because of the lack of title  documentation. 

Again, we urge you to support this important bipartisan legislation. By passing the  “Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act,” Congress can provide meaningful relief to  the millions of disaster survivors most in need.