FEMA Ends Policy That Denied Many Black Families Disaster Relief Funds

The agency said it would no longer impose strict ownership requirements that unduly affected Black communities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it would end a policy that prevented many Black families from securing federal relief funds after natural disasters such as Hurricane Ida, which has wreaked havoc across the nation this week. The Washington Post published a detailed account of FEMA’s policies in July, noting that the agency regularly denied claims to Black families who live on land that is passed down informally between generations, a policy that dates to the Jim Crow era, when local laws largely restricted the rights of people of color. Until Thursday, FEMA required proof of land ownership in the form of a deed or will, but about a third of Black-owned land in the South is held via the informal system. The new policies will reduce those barriers and allow Black Americans to provide a range of ownership documentation to secure individual federal assistance after natural disasters. The shift will apply retroactively to Aug. 23 to account for damage from Hurricane Ida and flooding in Tennessee, and the Post noted that there is legislation working its way through Congress to mandate the agency reevaluate claims going back several years.