individuals or households who were unable to secure alternative housing, FEMA did not provide temporary housing units in Vermont.
Overview of the Individuals and Households Program (IHP) The Individuals and Households Program (IHP) provides money and services to
people in the disaster area when losses are not covered by insurance and property has been damaged or destroyed. The program provides financial assistance and, if necessary, direct assistance to eligible individuals and households who, as a direct result of a major disaster or emergency, have uninsured or under-insured necessary expenses and serious needs and are unable to meet their expenses or needs through other means. IHP is a program of last resort to meet basic needs – it is not designed to make a client “whole,” i.e., to return them to their pre-disaster condition. A client may have lost $10,000 worth of shoes and clothing. However, if she still has seven day’s worth of basic outfits, she will not be compensated for her loss.
Program assistance is available from the date of the declaration of the disaster
until no more than 18 months later, unless FEMA determines that, due to extraordinary circumstances, the assistance period should be extended. However, to qualify for any assistance at all, applicants must timely register with FEMA (for more information on timely registrations, see below).
IHP funding is not counted as income and is exempt from garnishment. See 44
CFR 206.110(f). Thus, it is not counted as income or a resource in the determination of eligibility for welfare, income assistance, or income-tested benefit programs funded by the federal government. It is also exempt from garnishment, seizure, encumbrance, levy, execution, pledge, attachment, release, or waiver. However, these exemptions cannot be reassigned or transferred. FEMA funds are not included in the bankruptcy estate. After Irene, for instance, a disabled owner of a mobile home was able to obtain enough FEMA funding to purchase a new home while maintaining her food stamp allowance and her SSI monthly benefit amount because the FEMA grant was considered exempt.
As noted earlier, the Stafford Act can be found at 42 U.S.C. § 5121-5207. The
Act has recently been amended by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, P.L. 109-295, Title VI; 120 Stat. 1355 (2006) (PK Act), and the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006, P.L. 109-308, 120 Stat. 1725 (2006). The PK Act expanded the authority of FEMA to provide assistance, including individual case management, assistance for service animals, recognizing the need for reasonable accommodations to program rules for persons with disabilities, and, arguably, greater authority for regional management to authorize granting assistance to multiple households from one address. The statute also eliminated the cap on home repairs and replacement assistance, but did not eliminate the overall cap on assistance (at the time of this writing, the cap per household is $30,200). Lastly, the amendment states that FEMA “may” provide for utility costs and security deposits as part of rental assistance, i.e., the agency may opt not to include utilities, or it may elect to do so. The IHP regulations can be found at 44 CFR Part 206, Subpart D. At the time of this writing, regulations
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