Sponsors (13)
The bill broadens and speeds access to housing and repair aid for disaster survivors—especially people without formal title and renters—by reducing documentation and language barriers and adding rental assistance, but it raises federal costs, fraud and administrative risks, and the possibility of delays or uneven implementation.
Low-income people who lack formal property title (including occupants of informal housing, boardinghouses, mobile homes, and some homeless households) become explicitly eligible for owner-occupant disaster assistance and for federal help to obtain title, helping them recover and rebuild after major disasters.
Applicants can use a simple self-certification form (no notarization), available in English, Spanish and other locally predominant languages and posted online/social media, cutting paperwork and access barriers so renters and homeowners can apply faster for FEMA assistance.
Displaced renters and other households gain clearer eligibility for temporary rental assistance after major disasters (including people made eligible by the title rule), improving short-term housing stability while longer-term repairs or rebuilding proceed.
Expanding eligibility (titleless owner-occupants, broader repair coverage, and more rental assistance) is likely to increase FEMA program demand and federal spending, creating budgetary pressure that could require higher appropriations or trade-offs elsewhere.
Broader, flexible evidentiary standards plus reliance on unnotarized self-certification raise fraud and inaccurate-claim risks, which could divert limited resources, increase verification costs, and undermine public confidence.
New administrative burdens and tight implementation deadlines (30‑day production, 180‑day reopening window, mandated consultations) could strain FEMA, HUD, and state staff, increase workloads, delay case resolution, and produce uneven or error-prone rollout.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Allows people without formal title who lived on disaster‑damaged property to get FEMA housing help (including title costs), adds a self‑certification form, broadens covered damage, and directs FEMA–HUD coordination.
Introduced April 27, 2026 by Elizabeth Warren · Last progress April 27, 2026
Expands who can get FEMA housing assistance after a major disaster by allowing people who live on damaged property but lack formal title to qualify for owner-occupant aid and by authorizing FEMA to pay certain costs to obtain title. It requires FEMA to create a simple self‑certification form (not subject to normal Paperwork Reduction Act review), provide it in multiple languages and at Disaster Recovery Centers, and gives applicants back to Jan 1, 2017 a limited window to submit the form. The bill also broadens the definition of covered housing damage, adjusts temporary repair standards to support longer‑term habitability, conditions some assistance on a presidential cost‑effectiveness finding, and directs FEMA and HUD to consult about joint temporary rental assistance programs for future disasters.