Dear Senators Schumer, McConnell, Murray, and Collins and Representatives Johnson, Jeffries, Cole, and DeLauro,

We represent grassroots membership-based organizations in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina (list in formation). For the last week, our members have been living through the utter devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

We have put in the work, doing our job to care for ourselves, since we are directly impacted, and also the members of our communities. We’ve mucked and gutted homes, carried water and medicine to neighbors, and provided hot meals and dry clothes to people who’ve lost everything. Now we need you to do your job: come back in session in October and fund disaster recovery, including HUD CDBG-DR funding for our communities and all communities that have yet to receive this critical support so they can rebuild.

Congress failed to fund FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund in the September Continuing Resolution, even as members went home two days early because of the threat of Helene. In our work on the ground, we’re echoing FEMA’s message that there’s enough money for response and that everyone should apply to get the help they’re entitled to. We expect many families to receive $750 in Serious Needs Assistance as a way to start their recoveries, in addition to other FEMA funding for temporary housing, home repair, and other needs. FEMA can’t make everyone whole, but it’s an absolutely essential resource.

FEMA needs more dedicated funding for the DRF, and more public-facing, people-centered workers to process applications for assistance quickly and equitably. Our state and local governments need major, longer-term support in the form of reimbursement for search and rescue, overtime for first responders, debris removal, mental health services, and to repair public goods and services like schools, parks, transit, and government buildings so that storm survivors can begin the long, hard road to recovery.

We also need funding for the affordable housing crisis that will accelerate as the flood waters recede and speculators prey on homeowners without the resources to recover. Tenants will be displaced or possibly evicted. In addition to an appropriation now, we must address this issue for future disaster survivors. For too long, Congress has failed to permanently authorize HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program for long-term disaster recovery for everyday people. CDBG-DR is the only federal program to permanently repair and rebuild housing for people who are uninsured or underinsured, and provides critical funding to repair infrastructure and mitigate against future disasters. Our states sit at the nexus of the climate and the housing crisis, and it is the most vulnerable communities who pay the price for others’ poor planning, inaction, and lack of dedicated resources.

The lack of permanent authorization for the CDBG-DR program will cause massive delays in even starting housing recovery. We can’t afford to wait for this funding across our region. Permanent authorization would allow HUD to immediately start allocating money to disaster-affected communities to accelerate long-term disaster recovery and help fend off a worsening affordability crisis, whenever a disaster hits.

When you come back into session, it’s time to fully fund the DRF, appropriate CDBG-DR Funds, and finally permanently authorize CDBG-DR. We’re joined in this request by counterpart organizations in Texas, Hawaii, and Louisiana (list in formation) who are still waiting on CDBG-DR for their own recoveries from disasters in 2023 and 2024. We’re counting on you.

Sincerely,

And additional signers to come (last updated 10/18/24, 12:58 p.m.)