Deemed Ineligible: Reasons Homeowners in Puerto Rico Were Denied Aid After Hurricane María

ABSTRACT

In Puerto Rico, after Hurricane María, about 60% of all applications received by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Individuals and Households Program (IHP) were declared ineligible. Why would such a large number of households in Puerto Rico have been unable to obtain assistance from FEMA? To answer this question, interviews with 10 disaster survivors and 15 stakeholders were conducted. The author found that individuals were denied based on their inability to prove homeownership, no contact for inspection, and duplicate application, among other reasons. The article offers recommendations for how nonprofit groups can participate in postdisaster recovery efforts as well as how to advocate at the local and federal level for disaster victims effectively.

KEYWORDS:

• FEMA Individual Assistance
• disaster recovery
• disaster planning
• informal housing
• Puerto RIco

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Through interviews with older adults, I learned that many older adults and low-income individuals who own cell phones do not use them as a home phone. For example, they might turn them off to save energy, or not charge them at all.

2. Insular areas are defined as Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Maríana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, or otherwise remote areas such as Alaska’s interior (FEMA, 2019a).

3. These amounts were adjusted for inflation from 2003 to 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ivis García

Ivis García, originally from Puerto Rico, is an assistant professor in City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Ivis facilitates Planners for Puerto Rico and it is a member of the Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition of the National Low Income Housing Coalition—both advocate for the recovery of Puerto Rico at the local and federal levels. Using a Participatory Research Approach and an asset-based lens, Dr. García is interested in housing issues as they pertain to underserved communities, from Latino/a homeowners to families experiencing homelessness.