Disaster Housing: FEMA Needs More Detailed Guidance and Performance Measures to Help Ensure Effective Assistance after Major Disasters

Abstract

Concerns over the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) provision of temporary housing assistance, including travel trailers at group sites, after the 2005 hurricanes led to the development of the National Disaster Housing Strategy. GAO was asked to assess (1) the challenges households faced in transitioning to permanent housing, (2) the extent to which FEMA measured its performance inclosing and transitioning households in group sites, (3) the strategy's effectiveness in defining FEMA's roles and responsibilities for closing and transitioning households in group sites, and (4) the alternatives to travel trailers in group sites and how well the strategy assessed them. GAO reviewed the strategy and interviewed officials from FEMA, state agencies, and selected nonprofit and housing research groups.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2009
Accession Number
AD1181166

Entities

People

  • Daniel Garcia-diaz
  • Emily Chalmers
  • John Mcgrail
  • Josephine Perez
  • Marc Molino
  • Marshall Hamlett
  • Mathew J. Scire
  • Rose Schuville

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Congress
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Department Of Veterans Affairs
  • Disasters
  • Emergencies
  • Emergency Response
  • Employment
  • Families (Human)
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • Law
  • Lessons Learned
  • Local Governments
  • National Governments
  • Public Administration
  • Standards
  • United States
  • United States Government

Readers

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