If a natural disaster tears through your community, you might be able to apply for assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.
After Hurricane Beryl hit Houston in July, many people did just that. Over 650,000 Harris County residents applied for FEMA assistance in the aftermath of Beryl. That was more applications than after any other disaster in the county’s recent history.
So what accounts for this increase?
Rebekah Ward, who covers climate and the environment for the Houston Chronicle, said some of this increase can be chalked up to changes in FEMA’s application system.
“In March of this year, FEMA made various alterations that allowed people to apply more easily. They had to jump through fewer hoops before applying for the Individuals and Households program, as well as introducing a new category called Serious Needs Assistance, in which individuals can get approved for $750 for immediate needs like food, water and medical expenses,” Ward said.
“Those $750 can be approved prior to a house inspection. So what we heard anecdotally is that a lot of individuals learned of this new component of the program and that incentivized those individuals to apply.”
Despite these changes, the program is still focused on those who have had their housing situation disrupted by the storm.
“You do still have to have sustained some damage from the storm,” Ward said. “It’s not enough just to have been present in Houston during the storm. The application includes reporting the damages that you sustained.
The difference is that that $750, as well as the additional other needs assistance that the agency can levy, don’t require the same amount of verification of what exactly those damages are and how grave those damages are before it can be approved. So people were seeing their $750 check long before they actually got approved for any house recovery.”
Ward said she heard from folks that the turnaround time for the $750 has usually been within 30 days.
“Those checks do come much more quickly,” she said. “We don’t know yet whether the changes that FEMA has implemented will significantly affect how many people or how much money those people receive for those home improvements. Although some of the changes are targeted at making applying for those home improvements easier.”
Ward also looked at where in the city most of the aid applications came from, and found some interesting trends.
“Houston’s northern suburbs, especially near Spring, Kingwood, and Humble are driving the unprecedented surge in applications. And a smaller volume of applications are coming from vulnerable areas around the city and at the county’s southeastern edges,” Ward said.
“So, while this data isn’t final because applicants do have until Sept. 10 to enter their applications, it does suggest that in certain areas, there was a big surge, either in knowledge or interest, in applying for FEMA.”
