FEMA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report finding that FEMA ignored equity for over three decades in allocating $1.75 billion in buyout grants, which help communities purchase and demolish flood-prone properties to maintain the land as open space. Section 308 of the Stafford Act requires that disaster assistance programs be administered equitably and impartially without discrimination on the grounds of “race, color, religion, nationality, sex, age, disability, English proficiency, or economic status”.
FEMA’s buyout program also identifies nondiscrimination requirements in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the requirements directs states and communities to consider “fairness, equity, and equal access” when selecting property acquisition projects for the grant applications. FEMA officials could not ensure that states considered demographic and economic information when selecting their projects as FEMA has not developed a method for states to report this data and FEMA had not issued guidance of how states use that information when awarding acquisition funds. FEMA was relying on Statement of Assurances by states that included a compliance provision, but many projects did not include these statements to support the state’s compliance. In the report, the OIG urged the agency to “prioritiz[e] equity across the program” by ensuring states consider race, nationality, economic status, and other information when making buyout grant decisions.