	Introduction

Hurricane Katrina has resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of families from theirhomes. While its magnitude is unprecedented, the resulting need to shelter and house displacedfamilies is not. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the nation's agencywith a mission to provide safe and decent housing for all Americans, has played a role in meetingthose needs in the past and is playing a role in the wake of Katrina. While most aspects of emergency response are led and organized at the state and local level,the federal government provides resources to aid their efforts. (6) 

	Existing HUD Programs and Authority

In responding to disasters, HUD generally focuses on aiding families in the final two stagesof housing need; temporary and permanent housing. The primary project-based rental assistance programsare Section 8 project-based rental assistance, the Section 202 program for the elderly, and the Section811 program for the disabled. Inthe past, Congress has also created special emergency short-term vouchers that can be used toprovide temporary housing to displaced families. For more information on the use of CDBG fundsfor disaster recovery, see CRS Report RS22303, Community Development Block Grant Funds inDisaster Relief and Recovery , by [author name scrubbed]. Mortgage Programs

While HUD does not provide any direct mortgage loan programs, the Federal HousingAdministration (FHA) does provide both single and multifamily mortgage insurance. A Look At Past Disasters

In order to better understand the role of HUD in meeting the housing needs of families andcommunities impacted by disasters, the following section looks at several past disasters characterizedby major housing losses. (27) HOME dollars were alsodistributed to each of the nine flood-damaged states. The Northridge Earthquake was the costliest in the nation's history, with lossesestimated at between $20 and $40 billion. Prior to the allocation of emergency CDBG funds, HUD took a number of steps to respondto the 2004 Florida hurricanes. FEMAassistance is available to meet a range of housing needs, from emergency shelters, to trailers, to homerepair grants. The review of past disasters included in this report shows that HUD's programs haveprimarily been used to provide longer-term housing aid, such as rental vouchers and new housingconstruction, as well as aid to communities to repair infrastructure and promote economicdevelopment. In the months following 2005's Hurricane Katrina, HUD's programs were not calledon to play a major role in responding to families' housing needs. As the focus shifts from response to Katrina to the inevitable review ofthat response, the appropriate role for HUD to play following a disaster may be the subject ofCongressional debate.
Hurricane Katrina has resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of families from theirhomes. While its magnitude is unprecedented, the resulting need to shelter and house displacedfamilies is not. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the nation's agencywith a mission to provide safe and decent housing for all Americans, has played a role in meetingthose needs in the past and is playing a role in the wake of Katrina. This report looks at HUD'scurrent programs and how they have been used to respond to past disasters.
The report begins by introducing the concept of a continuum of housing needs following adisaster. Displaced families' needs range from emergency shelter to temporary and permanenthousing. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has primary responsibilityfor coordinating disaster relief efforts and providing certain services to help communities recover,other federal agencies, including HUD, also play an important role.
HUD's programs fall into three distinct categories. The direct housing assistance programsinclude the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, the public housing program, andproject-based rental assistance (including Section 202 and Section 811 programs for the elderly anddisabled). They can be used to provide temporary housing for both families who were receivinghousing assistance at the time of the disaster as well as those who were not. The block grantprograms, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment PartnershipsPrograms, provide flexible funding sources to states and localities to meet housing and othercommunity development needs, including those in times of disaster. The Federal HousingAdministration (FHA) at HUD provides single-family and multi-family mortgage insurance, the rulesof which become more flexible following a disaster.
In order to better understand the role HUD has played in response to disasters, this reportprofiles crises in which the housing stock was severely damaged. Congress provided emergencysupplemental funding to HUD in response to each of the following disasters: Hurricane Andrew,Midwest Flooding, the Northridge Earthquake, and the 2004 Florida Hurricanes.
HUD programs have been used as a conduit for funneling short-, interim-, and long-termfunding to disaster-stricken communities many times in the past, however, Katrina's impact on theregion's housing stock eclipses that of any other natural or manmade disaster in the history of thiscountry. While looking to prior uses of HUD resources in times of disaster may be informative,given the scope of Katrina, new and broad initiatives to meet the interim- and long-term needs of theaffected region and its residents may be considered in the 109th Congress. This report containsreferences to other CRS products that track activities specifically in response to Hurricane Katrina. This report will not be updated.
Key Policy Staff
Division abbreviations: ALD -- American Law; DSP -- Domestic Social Policy; G&F --Government and Finance