Response to the Gulf Coast Hurricanes

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

In the aftermath of the Gulf Coast Hurricanes, the Democratic Members of the Financial Services Committee have been active in providing both short-term and long-term solutions to housing and flood insurance for hurricane survivors.

However, Democrats have been critical at the federal government's response to these natural disasters. Since the hurricanes struck and sent millions of people looking for temporary housing, the federal government's housing response has been haphazard at best. Instead of following the Clinton Administration's lead on disaster related housing after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, the Bush Administration produced a multi-layered, overly bureaucratic response that has FEMA taking on more than it can handle and HUD proving to be missing in action. In fact, a bipartisan consensus seems to have emerged that steps FEMA and HUD have taken to date are not working.

 

In the 109th Congress, Committee Democrats worked with Republican Committee Members to pass a number of bills in the House to aid the victims of the hurricanes: Click here for archived information on Democratic efforts to aid the victims of the hurricanes in the 109th Congress.

 

The new Democratic Leadership of the 110th Congress has made response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma a top priority. The first Committee hearing of the new Congress was on Federal Housing Response to Hurricane Katrina. This hearing was followed by two days of field hearings in New Orleans, LA and Gulfport, MS on the affordable housing crisis in the Gulf region post Katrina and then a hearing on insurance claims payment processes in the Gulf Coast following the 2005 Hurricanes.

 

In March, Chairman Barney Frank and Housing and Community Opportunity Chair Maxine Waters introduced H.R. 1227, "The Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007," to provide comprehensive housing relief for the hurricane impacted areas of the Gulf Coast. The measure will provide increased flexibility for already allocated funds, provides new oversight of existing programs, preserves public housing and assists evacuees with rental housing, and provides support for landlords and local communities who assisted evacuees with housing. The House Financial Services Committee passed this bill on a bipartisan vote of 50-16 on March 7, 2007. The House of Representatives passed this bill on March 21, 2007 by a vote of 302-125. Click here to see how Members of the House voted on this bill.

Specifically, H.R. 1227 will provide the following:

• Flexibility: The bill provides much needed flexibility for use of previously appropriated federal funds to speed up recovery efforts. It frees up $1.2 billion in funds for Louisiana’s Road Home Program, for which FEMA is currently withholding use - by transferring the funds to the CDBG account. It eliminates an unnecessary restriction imposed by the prior Congress against CDBG funds being used to meet matching requirements under other federal programs.

• Oversight: The bill requires that the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the entity that administers the Road Home program, report on their progress every thirty days.

• Preservation of Federal Housing Assistance: The bill includes a number of provisions to rebuild the stock of affordable housing and to ensure that the Administration will not shrink the level of housing assistance that supports that housing stock. Specifically, it requires HUD to provide a replacement voucher for every public or assisted housing unit destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. It requires HUD to approve proposals to reestablish or re-site damaged affordable federally assisted housing units owned by private landlords. It requires that replacement affordable housing units be provided for every public housing unit in New Orleans that HUD wants to demolish. It requires HUD to report on the number of public housing units which are being planned to be sold off in areas impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And, it authorizes housing voucher assistance for evacuees living in other parts of the country who might otherwise lose their assistance in September. This bill requires that HUD open 3,000 public housing units in New Orleans.

• Assistance for Communities and landlords that assisted evacuees: The bill provides assistance for generous communities and landlords that offered rental housing assistance nationwide for evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The bill authorizes reimbursements for communities that used their own CDBG funds to provide rental assistance to evacuees after the storms hit. And it reimburses landlords who assisted evacuees for financial damages caused by FEMA abrogating commitments made right after the storm under the FEMA Section 403 City Lease program.

In addition, the bill was amended in Committee to include the following:

• An amendment to authorize funding for 4,500 new project based vouchers for supportive housing for seniors, disabled, and the homeless. [Rep. Al Green (D-TX)]

• An amendment to protect the inventory of affordable housing units in the gulf – by preventing sell off of public housing units unless affordability maintained for the longest feasible period, by requiring replacement of demolished public housing units, and by protecting residents by providing relocation assistance for displaced residents. [Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO)]

• To provide protections for housing agencies adversely impacted by Hurricane Wilma, by clarifying that HUD shall make adjustments in the voucher allocation formula for agencies whose voucher utilization rates fell as a result of Wilma. [Rep. Frank – Manager’s Amendment]

Click here for a section by section analysis of H.R. 1227, "The Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act."

Click here for bill text of H.R. 1227, "The Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act."

Click here for the March 7, 2007 press release "House Financial Services Committee Passes Comprehensive Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Bill."

Click here for documents related to the March 6-7, 2007 Committee markup of H.R. 1227, "The Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act."

Click here for documents related to the February 28, 2007 Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing "Insurance Claims Payment Processes in the Gulf Coast after the 2005 Hurricanes."

Click here for documents related to the February 22-23, 2007 Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee field hearings "Solving the Affordable Housing Crisis in the Gulf Region Post Katrina: Why no progress and what are the obstacles to success?"

Click here for documents related to the February 6, 2007 full Committee hearing "Federal Housing Response to Hurricane Katrina."

Click here for the January 17, 2007 Statements of Chairman Barney Frank and Congressman Mel Watt on the Recent United States District Court Decision on Insurance Claims by Katrina Victims.

Click here for archived information on Democratic efforts to aid the victims of the hurricanes in the 109th Congress.