NOTE TO EDITORS: THIS ADVISORY MAY BE USED AS A NEWS RELEASE. MEDIA ARE INVITED TO ATTEND THE CLINIC AND INTERVIEW OFFICIALS IN PERSON. TO CONTACT A FEMA SPOKESPERSON, CALL 512-908-8863 or 703-254-9171. PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE.
AUSTIN, Texas –More than 50 hurricane evacuees were waiting in line today when the Austin Recertification Clinic for Katrina Survivors opened its doors at 2 p.m. The clinic is open until 8 p.m. tonight for evacuees who need help recertifying for continued housing assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Amy Elder, executive director of Texas Interfaith Disaster Recovery, said TIDR organized the event at the R.O.C.K. (Reflections of Christ’s Kingdom) Church at 5800 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., adjacent Highway 183. The City of Austin provided tables and chairs for the location donated by the church.
“This has been a great example of a community effort in Austin to assist hurricane survivors,” Elder said. She added that many social services agencies and organizations are present to help evacuees. Agencies include Austin Energy, Catholic Charities, Family Eldercare, Goodwill Industries, Refugee Services of Texas, Salvation Army, Travis County, American Dream Self-Sufficiency Program, Advocacy Inc., Caritas, Arc of Capital Area, SafePlace, Any Baby Can, and AIDS Services of Austin.
FEMA recently revised the form needed for evacuees to recertify for continued assistance. The one-page form simply asks for current address and current household income, and has checkoff boxes for job search status and rental assistance needs. FEMA Individual Assistance representatives are present at the clinic to answer any questions evacuees have about their assistance from FEMA.
Participants providing services for the evacuees are pleased with the turnout for the event and expect hundreds more to show up for it during the day. Organization hosts will stay until all of the evacuees have had the opportunity to discuss their needs. Similar workshops have been held in San Antonio andHouston.
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RECOVERY NEWS
HURRICANE RITA DISASTER ASSISTANCE AND LOANS TOP $982.1M
Nearly $904.98 Million Additional in Public Assistance Goes to Texas for Rita and Katrina reimbursements
AUSTIN, Texas – Families and individuals who suffered damage from Hurricane Rita have been approved to receive more than $982.1 million in disaster assistance, including grants from the U. S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
Recovery Services Summary as of close of business Oct. 19, 2006:
· 479,942 individuals have registered for Individual Assistance.
· $607,081,265 has been approved through the Individuals and Household Program. Of that, FEMA has provided $513,138,476 in Individual Assistance and$93,942,789 in Other Needs Assistance. The State of Texas provided 25 percent or $23,485,697 of the Other Needs Assistance.
$375,059,500 in loans has been approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for individuals and businesses affected by Hurricane Rita in Texas. Of that amount, $252,873,800 was approved for home loans, $108,924,900 for business loans and $13,260,800 for economic injury.
· $6,027,854 has been disbursed in Disaster Unemployment Assistance; 7,926 claims have been approved.
· 350,800 home inspections have been completed.
· 5,013 applicants have requested travel trailers. Since Hurricane Rita made landfall, 4,296 households have leased 4,602 units (some larger households have multiple trailers). Currently 2,834 families are leasing 3,057 units.
· $904,978,095 in Public Assistance has been obligated to Texas by FEMA. The funds are being used by the State of Texas to reimburse local governments and agencies for eligible and documented debris removal, temporary sheltering, interim housing and emergency protective measures associated with Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
·
Homeowners,
renters and business owners who sustained damage from the
hurricanes may update their information by calling the FEMA
tele-registration number,
1-800-621-FEMA (3362),
TTY 800-462-7585 for
the speech-or hearing-impaired, or online at
www.fema.gov.
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For
more information on Texas disaster recovery, visit
www.fema.gov or
www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem
FEMA
manages federal response and recovery efforts following any
national incident, initiates mitigation activities and
manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA works
closely with state and local emergency managers, law
enforcement personnel, firefighters and other first
responders. FEMA became part of the U.S.Department of
Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.
RECOVERY
NEWS
FEMA
Issues Notices to Katrina Landlords –
Payments May End
Lack
of Evacuee Recertification Generates Payment Termination
Letters
AUSTIN,
Texas –About 12,500 evacuee households in Houston and
another 3,700 evacuee families living in other Texas cities
will soon be notified by their landlords that their Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rental assistance will
end on Oct. 31, because the evacuees have not submitted
required recertification paperwork to the
Agency.
Letters
began arriving at more than 1,000 apartment complexes
across Texas on Thursday, alerting landlords that
applicants would no longer be eligible for FEMA rental
assistance after Oct. 31 unless they recertify. The
letters strongly urge the landlords to remind occupants
that they have until Oct. 31 to contact FEMA, submit the
necessary paperwork, and if approved, continue to receive
FEMA rental assistance.
The
Oct. 31 deadline applies to individuals who were originally
provided housing through state and local agencies and
transitioned to FEMA's rental assistance program, and have
not provided the required documentation.
E.C.
“Butch” Smith, Director of the Texas
Transitional Recovery Office in Austin, said,
“It’s urgent for families to contact FEMA and
get recertified, and we’re asking the landlords to
help us communicate the importance of this process to their
tenants.”
“We’ve
conducted a major outreach program to reach evacuees
through the media and recertification fairs with some
success,” Smith added. “We’re
hoping these notices will emphasize to evacuees and
landlords alike the importance of recertification and
encourage every evacuee household to submit their
documentation immediately.”
Examples
of documentation include proof of pre-disaster
mortgage or rent payments, pre-disaster and current income,
efforts to reestablish income (if applicable), and a
housing plan that describes how they will provide for their
own housing in the future. In addition, individuals
who are receiving FEMA assistance provided directly to
them, need to provide rent receipts for those
payments.
FEMA
normally provides applicants a 30-day notification notice
before ending rental assistance, and with the
recertification requirement, the agency has added 10 days
to the alerting requirement. Evacuee households
who’ve not recertified and have been notified their
assistance will end still have 40 days to submit their
documentation and continue to receive
assistance.
Evacuee
families across Texas were alerted to the recertification
deadline in recent months with letters and phone
calls. Houstonarea families have also been able to
attend recertification fairs sponsored by the Joint Houston
Housing Task Force. About one thousand families
submitted their FEMA recertification paperwork in the first
two fairs, and a third one is scheduled for Monday, Sept.
25 at Houston’s Power
Center.
FEMA
urges evacuees receiving rental assistance to contact the
FEMA helpline at 1-800-621-FEMA (1-800-621-3362) to check
on their recertification status. The number for the
speech-and hearing-impaired is TTY
1-800-462-7585.
FEMA
manages federal response and recovery efforts following any
national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation
activities, works with state and local emergency managers,
and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA
became part of theU.S. Department of Homeland Security on
March 1, 2003.
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# #
RECOVERY
NEWS
LANDLORD
NOTIFICATION STARTS FOR HURRICANE
EVACUEES
AUSTIN,
Texas –
Thousands of hurricane evacuee households in Houston and
other parts of the state still have not completed paperwork
requirements to continue receiving rental assistance
benefits from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) beyond Oct. 31.
Due
to the lead time required for notification to landlords,
FEMA and its payment agent, Corporate Lodging Consultants,
will be sending letters this week to apartment managers
with the names of households whose rental benefits expire
at the end of October. These households can still send
paperwork to FEMA, but waiting until the end of October
could result in a lapse of payments and issues with
property owners and managers.
Recertification,
as the process is known, is required every three months
following a disaster declaration for registrants in
FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program under
Section 408 of the Stafford Act.
Many
households have had their rent paid through various
emergency sheltering programs, such as the Houston Housing
Authority. These households have a one-time
recertification due in October. Successful recertification
will carry those households through to Feb. 28 for
Hurricane Katrina households and March 23 for Hurricane
Rita households.
Households
uncertain as to what to do to recertify should contact
FEMA’s helpline at 1-800-621-FEMA
(3362) or
TTY 1-800-462-7585. Those
unable to continue in FEMA’s rental assistance
program may contact community organizations and other
government agencies for assistance with specific needs. The
state’s information and referral number, 2-1-1, may
assist in providing access to those services. Hurricane
survivors should identify themselves as evacuees to the
operators.
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Editors:
More disaster information is available online at
www.fema.gov or
www.State.txdps.us.
FEMA
manages federal response and recovery efforts following any
national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation
activities, works with State and local emergency managers,
and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA
became part of theU.S. Department of Homeland Security on
March 1, 2003.
RECOVERY
NEWS
SEPT. 24
MARKS YEAR OF RECOVERY
AUSTIN,
Texas –
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) role
in a disaster is to provide financial assistance to
individual disaster victims and public agencies to give
them a head start in the recovery
process.
Hurricane
Rita struck Sept. 24, 2005, less than a month after
Hurricane Katrina sent hundreds of thousands of evacuees
fleeingLouisiana. The combined recovery issues
involved in sheltering evacuees from both storms and
rebuilding infrastructure damaged in the Rita hurricane
have forged new ground for FEMA.
Countless
hours of effort by thousands of federal employees has been
expended this past year on behalf of both disaster
survivors and public agencies. FEMA has to follow the
law – the
Robert
T. Stafford Act – that authorizes FEMA’s
involvement, but officials at all levels have endeavored to
make sure that compassion and flexibility uncharacteristic
of the spirit of the law isn’t ignored in the efforts
to adhere to the letter of the law. Deadlines have
been changed to accommodate the needs of disaster victims
as FEMA has moved from emergency sheltering to longer-term
assistance programs. FEMA has also responded to
congressional initiatives to increase Public Assistance
funding to the same levels as seen in
Louisiana.
FEMA
was never designed as a social services agency.
FEMA’s limited-term payment programs, deadlines and
recertification requirements are meant to be incentives for
disaster survivors to take responsibility for their own
recovery. But the enormity of the Katrina-Rita
experience caused sheltering on a mass scale –first
in mass care shelters, then in hotels.
FEMA,
in concert with faith-based and community organizations,
has worked hard to make sure that disaster survivors find
ways to tackle the social, physical, emotional and
financial needs generated in the wake of the storm.
In a practical sense, this has meant getting survivors out
of mass care shelters and hotels into longer-term living
arrangements, ultimately with no dependence on federal
aid.
Despite
what you might have heard or read, FEMA has never evicted
anybody from a hotel or an apartment. FEMA provides
benefits for which people are either eligible or
ineligible. To provide benefits to people who are
ineligible is wrong and a violation of the spirit of the
Stafford Act.
The
hundreds of people who staff FEMA’s call
centers, responding to disaster victims, are dedicated
disaster workers whose goal is to help people along the
way. We believe these efforts have been successful,
with thousands of people now living productive lives in
spite of the disaster.
###
Editors:
More disaster information is available online at
www.fema.gov or
www.State.txdps.us.
FEMA
manages federal response and recovery efforts following any
national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation
activities, works with State and local emergency managers,
and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA
became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on
March 1, 2003