Giving Compass' Take:
- Heather Chapman discusses how many Black homeowners in rural areas are being denied FEMA aid due to the "heirs' property" system commonly used in the South.
- What are the root causes of Black and low-income disaster survivors being less likely to receive FEMA aid? How does not receiving disaster relief worsen the situations of already marginalized people?
- Learn about how donors can address racial inequity now to mitigate future disasters.
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Many rural Black homeowners are denied federal disaster relief because of an informal system of property inheritance common in the South, reports Hannah Dreier of The Washington Post.
Under the "heirs' property" system, land is passed down to descendants without a will or deed, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency requires proof of ownership for relief. There's no legal basis for the policy, but FEMA began requiring it to stave off scammers.
"In 2018, under pressure to resolve the crisis in Puerto Rico, the agency created a process for people to self-certify homeownership," Dreier reports. "But the fix applied only to islands and tribal areas, and it was not extended to the Deep South, where in internal correspondence, FEMA has recognized heirs’ property as 'a perennial issue.'"
Read the full article about rural Black homeowners being denied FEMA aid by Heather Chapman at The Rural Blog.