Last week, in an official after-action report, FEMA admitted that it botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Among things cited in the report were an acknowledgement that the agency had too many inexperienced personnel, too few supplies, difficulty in coordinating logistics and in working with local government on the island. And as more information comes to light, we are learning the full extent of the government’s negligence and ongoing failure in supporting Puerto Ricans through this crisis.
In addition to its initial emergency response, FEMA has also been working with homeowners over the last ten months to provide assistance in repairing the damage caused by the hurricane. But this too has proven to be a bureaucratic nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners were initially denied aid by FEMA and appealed—only to be left waiting indefinitely for a decision. So far, 79 percent of the appeals have been denied or not answered. FEMA has already denied more than 335,000 applications. And, to date, out of 43,000 appealed cases, only 7,500 have been approved and more than 34,000 have been deemed ineligible.
One of the significant challenges that Puerto Ricans have encountered in applying for FEMA aid is in proving ownership of the homes that they live in. This is because many people do not possess the required formal documentation due to a long-standing tradition on the island of illegal construction in low-income areas, combined with people inheriting land and building on it which is then passed down through generations without paperwork. Estimates suggest that more than half of the island’s infrastructure has been informally built and these are cultural practices that have existed for decades without much issue. In the meantime, FEMA says that there are alternatives for proving ownership such as demonstration of payment of property tax or maintenance of the residence. But advocates for Puerto Rican homeowners say that FEMA is remarkably inconsistent with how it denies or grants aid.
Moreover, there are questions about FEMA’s verification process with some island residents saying that FEMA claim inspectors didn’t actually complete their jobs. Complaints range from inspectors not speaking Spanish, to not entering homes to complete an inspection and not returning to homes if the homeowner wasn’t present. Given FEMA’s lack of efficiency, the Puerto Rican government has now turned to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help them develop a disaster recovery plan which could help to rebuild neighborhoods. So far, HUD has invested $20 million into Puerto Rico’s recovery.
It is, however, the same agency that is headed by Dr. Ben Carson who has absolutely no experience in housing, urban planning, community development, or basically anything outside of medicine. So, it’s hard to imagine that collaboration with HUD won’t also be a complete disaster. But given that Puerto Rico is almost two months into hurricane season, without much progress from FEMA after almost a year, it’s worth hanging onto some kind of optimism that HUD will come through.
In any case, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans remain in limbo while FEMA takes its time deciding who it will and won’t help. Those same people are living in homes without roofs, homes with broken doors and missing walls. If there’s one thing we can certainly agree on, it’s that FEMA is right when it says that it failed in properly responding to this disaster. But that’s no excuse for leaving people in crumbling homes. At this point, the least they can do (especially given how they’ve so badly screwed up) is to figure out a way to help people rebuild as quickly as possible.