Disaster Housing: FEMA Needs More Detailed Guidance and Performance Measures to Help Ensure Effective Assistance after Major Disasters
GAO-09-796
Published: Aug 28, 2009. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2009.
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Highlights
Concerns over the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) provision of temporary housing assistance, including travel trailers at group sites, after the 2005 hurricanes led to the development of the National Disaster Housing Strategy. GAO was asked to assess (1) the challenges households faced in transitioning to permanent housing, (2) the extent to which FEMA measured its performance in closing and transitioning households in group sites, (3) the strategy's effectiveness in defining FEMA's roles and responsibilities for closing and transitioning households in group sites, and (4) the alternatives to travel trailers in group sites and how well the strategy assessed them. GAO reviewed the strategy and interviewed officials from FEMA, state agencies, and selected nonprofit and housing research groups.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Homeland Security | To ensure that Congress and others have accurate information about the performance of FEMAs direct housing assistance in group sites, the Secretary of DHS should direct FEMA to develop performance measures and targets that the agency will use for reporting on the results of closing group sites and assisting households with transitioning to permanent housing, and ensure that these measures are clearly linked with FEMA's goals for disaster assistance. |
In its September 2013 response to our recommendation, FEMA stated that it has developed the Housing Operations Management Enterprise System (HOMES), which is used for tracking direct temporary housing assistance. If an applicant requires temporary housing and meets the qualifications, HOMES is used to link applicants with a FEMA-provided temporary housing unit; track the applicant's initial eligibility, continued eligibility, and move-in and move-out dates; and track the unit by type, location, maintenance orders, and disposition. Although FEMA has made a number of improvements, it did not provide information on planned or actual performance measures or targets that they plan to use based on the data that is collected in HOMES to help it gauge whether the program is achieving its goal.
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| Department of Homeland Security | Because of the multiple agencies with which FEMA must coordinate in delivering temporary housing assistance, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct FEMA to update its planning documents (e.g., the Disaster Housing Community Site Operations Annex of the National Disaster Housing Strategy) to describe how it will work with other agencies in closing group sites and transitioning households into permanent housing, what resources it needs to perform these activities, and how it will deal with specific challenges of a major disaster, such as potential shortages in available permanent housing. |
In August 2012, FEMA published the Catastrophic Housing Annex, which provides a scalable approach to how the federal government will support state, local, and territorial temporary housing needs. The goal of the annex is to transition disaster survivors from shelters to temporary housing and/or sustainable housing as quickly as possible following a catastrophic hurricane. The annex describes concepts and options for how FEMA, in collaboration with others, may provide temporary housing to eligible households to help disaster survivors recover and transition into sustainable or permanent housing. For example, for each housing option identified, the annex provides information on the resources it need to implement the housing option, the federal staffing requirements, the limitations associated with the option, and the necessary wrap around services, such as case management, to help disaster survivors identify and achieve appropriate sustainable housing. In addition, now that the Disaster Housing Assistance Program (DHAP) has been formalized as part of their catastrophic housing response FEMA will have a new way to potentially help transition households who receive direct housing assistance including those in group sites into more permanent housing. This annex represents an important step in providing information to relevant stakeholders about the realistic housing options available after a catastrophic event.
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| Department of Homeland Security | Because of the multiple agencies with which FEMA must coordinate in delivering temporary housing assistance, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct FEMA to describe clearly in its guidance to states how trailers or other options identified by the states can be deployed when other preferred housing options, such as existing rental housing, are not sufficient after a major disaster. |
In August 2012, FEMA published the Catastrophic Housing Annex, which describes the housing options that are available. Specifically, the annex provides detailed summaries of temporary and sustainable housing options, which provide a description of the option, the implementation vehicle needed (such as, whether an existing contract or memorandum of understanding is in place), capacity or availability of the housing unit, limitations and cost of the option, and the type of approval required. In addition, the annex states that housing assistance is typically provided according to the following order of priority: (1) maximize use of available housing resources, (2) augment existing resources, (3) deploy temporary housing resources, and (4) employ atypical housing methods. However, the annex also states that in a catastrophic disaster all option will be considered and that a state's State-led Disaster Housing Task Force (SLDHTF) can use the options presented in this annex to evaluate which options would be best implemented for the specific community affected. It further states that the SLDHTF should recommend appropriate housing options to the Federal Coordinating Officer and the state. According to the annex, in collaboration with the FEMA region, the Federal Coordinating Officer, and the state will determine what options will have the greatest impact on helping disaster survivors and communities recover as quickly as possible and move forward with implementation. The annex provides states emergency agencies with clearer directions on what are viable housing options that could be implemented after a major disaster and thus addresses our recommendation.
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Topics
Disaster relief aidFederal aid for housingFederal aid programsFederal propertystate relationsHousingHousing constructionHousing programsHurricane KatrinaHurricane RitaInsurance premiumsLocally administered programsLow income housingMobile homesPerformance measuresPersonal propertyProperty damagesProperty lossesPublic housingRental housingRental ratesReplacement housingSite selectionStrategic planningDisaster assistance (individuals)Program goals or objectives