Judge: FEMA must issue standards for disaster assistance

BROWNSVILLE — The Federal Emergency Management Agency must clearly outline the criteria its inspectors used in determining whether to award aid for storm damage claims after Hurricane Dolly, a U.S. district judge ruled Wednesday.

The finding - which comes six months after 14 low-income homeowners sued the agency - could help thousands of Rio Grande Valley residents challenge decisions that denied them emergency assistance in the storm's wake.

"FEMA will finally have to define how it determines who gets help to rebuild their homes and their lives," said David Hall, executive director of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, the organization representing the homeowners. "Because of this decision there are thousands of families across Texas who will have a chance to fight for the aid they should have received months ago."

In a lawsuit filed in November, the 14 plaintiffs questioned denial letters they received after applying for funds to repair their homes.

In each case, they were told their houses had sustained "insufficient damage" from the storm. In several, FEMA blamed the hurricane damage on poor construction and maintenance and found that Dolly was not the primary factor that had made the applicants' homes unsafe to life in.

But because the agency refused to publicly discuss the criteria used to make those determinations, the group's lawyers questioned whether the denial of aid amounted to an "institutionalized policy of discrimination against poor people."

"Just because some families don't have the resources to live in luxury doesn't mean they are less deserving of federal aid in a disaster," Hall said in statement. "In fact, these are the families that have needed FEMA's help the most."

The agency had previously defended withholding its standards, saying releasing them would limit its discretion in deciding future cases and "dramatically change" the rules governing how it operates. Federal law bars the agency from improving homes beyond their pre-disaster conditions except if required to comply with state and local building codes.

While Judge Hilda Tagle's ruling Wednesday found that Congress required FEMA to be more open about its decision-making, she cautioned that her findings did not necessarily mean that the agency would need to reverse any of its denial decisions.

The "plaintiffs in this case allege that they will continue to suffer irreparable injuries as a result of not receiving assistance from FEMA," Tagle wrote. "However, household assistance is not guaranteed to (them) even if FEMA more clearly outlines its standards and criteria for eligibility."

FEMA officials have declined to comment on the lawsuit since its filing in November, saying only that $44 million in individual assistance has been granted to South Texas homeowners since Dolly swept through the region in July.

Nearly 10,000 low-income Valley residents were denied federal aid.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.