Housing Counseling Disaster Recovery and Emergency Preparedness Toolkit

Disaster and Emergency Resource Page for Housing Counselors

This page contains resources, news, and updates regarding Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate and California fires. Check this page for resources for housing counseling agencies and news and updates about the disaster as they become available.

Disaster Recovery Flyers

These flyers are a helpful tool when participating in short-term and long-term disaster recovery outreach events in your area. “Turn to a HUD Housing Counselor for Help” and “Don’t be a Victim of Cons and Scams” inform members of your community the benefits of working with a housing counselor during emergency and disaster recovery.

The flyers are available in full color, one color and black and white so that you can decide which version to print. The flyers are available in English Spanish, French Creole, Korean, Portuguese, German, Arabic, Tagalog, French, Vietnamese, Laotian and Mandarin. View the flyers in all languages and color schemes.

Date Published: December 2016

Housing Counseling Disaster Program Guide

Housing counselors play a critical role in helping communities impacted by disaster connect families to key housing resources. This universal document provides a model for HUD-approved housing counseling agencies to expand and support their long-term disaster recovery services as part of their grantee action plan in their respective jurisdictions receiving Federal disaster recovery funds.

Date Published: May 2017

Disaster Recovery Homelessness Toolkit

The Disaster Recovery Homelessness Toolkit is designed to help communities more effectively address the needs of people experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable populations during a disaster. The toolkit is made up of three related guides that cover comprehensive disaster planning, response, and long-term recovery. The guides provide information and resources to assist emergency planners, community development professionals, homeless service providers, and others with planning and implementing a disaster response and recovery effort that serves all members of their community.

Date Published: December 2016

HUD Disaster Resources

This web page describes disaster resources available from HUD offices and agencies such as FHA, Ginnie Mae, Multifamily Housing, Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Policy Development and Research, Community Planning and Development, and others.

Disaster Relief Options for FHA Homeowners

This web page provides relief option for homeowners with a FHA-insured mortgage whose homes or ability to make mortgage payments was harmed by a Presidentially-declared disaster.

HUD Releases Model Programs For Use by Communities Seeking Community Development Block Grant Press Release

This press release describes model programs designed to help communities get CDBG-DR funds more expeditiously to residents struggling to rebuild, repair or restore their homes. These program designs can be adapted to a locality's unique needs and readily implemented so each community does not have to develop entire new programs on their own.

Date Published: March 2013

Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Toolkits

These toolkits cover the two phase process that the CDBG-DR grantee will undertake in the implementation of their long-term recovery efforts. The phases are essentially: 1) define the problem; and 2) develop a solution and implement the solution. Users should review the program overview, considerations, and strategies prior to using the tools, if applicable.

Date Published: October 2014

Multifamily Housing Guidance for Disaster Recovery

This document provides background and up-to-date guidance on HUD's policy and procedure regarding disaster recovery efforts by the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs after a Presidentially-Declared Disaster.

Date Published: December 2010

PD&R Disaster Recovery Toolkit

This toolkit provides a list of relevant resources, reports, guides, and ordinances to aid in the disaster recovery process. Topics include flood recovery, wind recovery, and earthquake recovery.

State Emergency Management Agency Directory

This web page contains contact information for emergency management agencies and offices.

FEMA Housing Portal

This portal is intended to help individuals and families, who have been displaced by a disaster, find a place to live. The portal consolidates rental resources identified and provided by federal agencies.

FEMA Training

This web page provides searchable, integrated information on courses provided or managed by FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness, Emergency Management Institute, and National Training and Education Division.

FannieMae Disaster Assistance

This web page contains information for FannieMae's lender customers on providing mortgage relief to homeowners affected by disasters. The page provides detailed policies in the Single-Family Selling and Servicing Guides.

FreddieMac Disaster Relief Policies

This web page contains information for Freddie Mac's sellers and services on providing assistance to borrowers affected by disasters. The page provides detailed policies in the Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide.

Disaster Recovery: A Resource for Homeowners

This page contains the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) resource paper that outlines what homeowners should do before and after a disaster along with how to start and then work through the recovery process.

NeighborWorks: Recovery from Natural Disasters

NeighborWorks offers training, resources, and assistance that residents and organizations need to rebuild and recover after a disaster. This page includes Navigating the Road to Recovery, a step-by-step guide for individuals and families.

HUD Housing Counseling Program Guide for Superstorm Sandy Disaster Relief

This document describes the potential design of a housing counseling program model that states, localities and other organizational entities can use in their quest to assist Sandy homeowners to obtain and sustain permanent housing through CDBG-DR funds. The information provided herein is intended to assist the States of New Jersey and New York and the City of New York to expand the services of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies as part of their grantee action plans for their respective jurisdictions.

Date Published: March 2013

Hurricane Sandy Resources

This web page provides information on Hurricane Sandy publications, frequently asked questions, and other resources.

Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery

This web page provides information about Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grants. HUD provides flexible grants to help cities, counties, and States recover from Presidentially declared disasters, especially in low-income areas, subject to availability of supplemental appropriations. In response to Presidentially declared disasters, Congress may appropriate additional funding for the CDBG program as Disaster Recovery grants to rebuild the affected areas and provide crucial seed money to start the recovery process. Since CDBG-DR assistance may fund a broad range of recovery activities, HUD can help communities and neighborhoods that otherwise might not recover due to limited resources.

Emergency Preparedness Guide for Housing Counseling Agencies

This guide will provide useful and easy-to-implement information to assist housing counseling agencies successfully prepare for any type of disaster or emergency. Developing an Emergency Preparedness Plan is one of the most important strategic decisions you will make as a housing counseling agency.

Date Published: March 2016

Emergency Preparedness and Recovery Resources for Housing Counseling Agencies

This document contains a comprehensive list of website resources to help housing counseling agencies assist and prepare their community for a disaster. The web links provided are best reviewed ahead of an actual disaster since Internet access is not guaranteed during emergency situations.

Date Published: March 2016