Ensuring Equitable Delivery of Disaster Benefits to Vulnerable Communities and... (EventID=114350)

Video Description

Connect with the House Financial Services Committee Get the latest news: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HouseFinancialCmte Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSCDems ___________________________________ On Wednesday, January 19, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. (ET) Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Green and Ranking Member Emmer will host a virtual hearing entitled, “Ensuring Equitable Delivery of Disaster Benefits to Vulnerable Communities and Peoples: An Examination of GAO's Findings of the CDBG-DR Program." ___________________________________ Witnesses for this one-panel hearing will be: • Daniel Garcia-Diaz, Managing Director, Financial Markets and Community Investment, U.S. Government Accountability Office • Diane Yentel, President and CEO, National Low Income Housing Coalition • Chrishelle Calhoun-Palay, Director, HOME Coalition • Andreanecia Morris, Executive Director, Housing NOLA • Stephen Begg, Deputy Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General ___________________________________ Background Increasingly, large-scale natural disasters have resulted in catastrophic damage around the United States, often with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations and contributing to wealth inequality. This hearing will assess a study of aspects of the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program undertaken by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) at the request of Chairwoman Maxine Waters and Representative Al Green in January 2020. Specifically, GAO was asked to assess the accessibility of CDBG-DR program benefits to members of vulnerable populations, including: (1) persons who are older and/or who have disabilities; (2) persons of low or moderate-income; and (3) racial minorities and members of the LGBTQ+ communities. As a result, GAO evaluated the approaches of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and CDBG-DR grantees (in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Louisiana, and New Jersey) to assisting vulnerable communities, as well as the challenges faced by grantees and vulnerable communities in dispensing or accessing CDBG-DR resources. Issued on Inauguration Day 2021, President Biden’s Executive Order 13985 described the need for better data collection and transparency on assistance to vulnerable populations and created an interagency Equitable Data Working Group to address existing impediments to measuring and advancing equity that result when federal datasets are not appropriately disaggregated (e.g., by race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, income, etc.). GAO Report Findings Applicants, Beneficiaries, and Grantees Face Challenges That are Greater for Vulnerable Populations In brief, GAO found that vulnerable communities and peoples face obstacles to accessing relief in the form of language barriers, limited transportation, and excessive documentation, and other requirements. According to GAO’s report, some grantees have addressed these challenges by acquiring translation services and developing physical outreach plans to reach vulnerable populations. Grantees, in turn, face challenges reaching vulnerable populations after a disaster and collecting accurate data on their unmet needs. Often the data available to grantees on unmet needs underestimate the needs of the lowest-income survivors, which leads to insufficient resources being allocated where they are most needed. Moreover, GAO found that grantees collect more demographic data than they report to HUD, including data on applicants as well as recipients of relief. HUD and CDBG-DR are Focused on Vulnerable Populations GAO found that HUD and CDBG-DR are focused on vulnerable populations, and appropriately so. For example, in recent Federal Register notices, HUD has directed applicants for CDBG-DR funds to demonstrate how their programs will promote housing for vulnerable populations.8 According to the report, grantees generally must spend 70% of funds on low- and moderate-income people, and grantee action plans submitted to HUD must describe how grant funds will be used and the populations to be served, including vulnerable populations such as racial minorities, the elderly, or persons with disabilities. Furthermore, HUD provides tools, such as strategies for reaching people with limited English proficiency, to help grantees serve these populations. When reviewing grantees' draft plans, HUD officials told GAO they typically require revisions to clarify the populations defined as vulnerable, how funds will be used to help them, and how grantees will reach out to traditionally underserved populations... Hearing page: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/events/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=408704