Can FEMA Help Your Family Return to Your Home?

Q: You would like to return home to start your family’s recovery, but the inspector said your home is uninhabitable. Is there assistance available so you can fix things?
A: FEMA’s Home Repair Assistance is a grant to make basic repairs to an owner-occupied primary home so it’s safe, sanitary and functional. Safe, sanitary and functional homes meet the following conditions:

• The exterior is structurally sound (including the doors, roof and windows).
• The electricity, gas, heat, plumbing, and sewer and septic systems function properly.
• The interior’s habitable areas are structurally sound (including ceiling and floors).
• The home is capable of operating for its intended purpose.
• There is safe access to and from the home.

Q: Who is eligible for Home Repair Assistance?
A: Homeowners who have damage from a presidentially declared disaster that made their home uninhabitable may be eligible for a grant to make it habitable again.
Note: The repairs must not be covered by another funding source such as insurance.

Q: What kind of repairs are covered?
A: Possible repairs include:

• Structural parts of a home (foundation, outside walls, roof).
• Windows, doors, floors, walls, ceilings, cabinetry.
• Cleaning septic tanks and repairing or replacing the entire system.
• Well or other sole source of water for the home.
• Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems.
• Utilities (electrical, plumbing, and gas systems).
• Entrance and exit ways from the home, including privately owned access roads.
• Blocking, leveling and anchoring of a mobile home and reconnecting or resetting its sewer, water, electrical and fuel lines and tanks.

Q: The Home Repair Assistance isn’t enough to repair your home to its original condition. What else can you do?
A: FEMA assistance may not make you whole, it is only to make basic home repairs. After you apply for Disaster Assistance, you may be referred to the SBA. You may be contacted by the SBA to offer you a lowinterest disaster loan. If you are contacted, you can submit an application online at SBA.gov/disaster, or inperson at a Disaster Recovery Center. You are not required to accept the loan from the SBA. SBA loan applications are due Dec. 10. Visit DisasterAssitance.gov for more information about other available assistance. Disaster Assistance applications are due Dec. 10.