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A neighborhood under water after Hurricane Harvey blasted through the southern U.S. in August 2017.

Emergency managers often take the lead or assist in collecting data on damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure, government buildings, and more after a natural disaster hits. HUD requires this data to be submitted as part of the CDBG-DR unmet needs assessment, which helps prioritize your jurisdiction’s projects and determines how your funding will be allocated between housing, economic development, and infrastructure repairs.

Based on experiences across the country, IBTS CDBG-DR program experts provide the following advice for emergency management agencies tasked with collecting unmet needs assessment data.

Begin collecting data on damage as soon as the disaster subsides.

• Put a dollar amount on as much storm damage as possible to sectors like homes, local business, infrastructure, loss of life, and more.

Designate an individual or team to collect and systematically record data.

• In addition to emergency managers, city managers, county administrators, or other local leaders can also lead the data collection process. However, it often requires an all-hands-on-deck approach.
• Use HUD’s data collection requirements, which can be found in the Federal Register notice for your award, to develop an organizational plan for your assessment.

Develop and implement a public outreach plan.

• This often involves going door-to-door to speak with homeowners individually.
• When speaking with homeowners, ask them about damage to their business, vehicles, second properties, etc., in addition to their homes.
• Use all available forms of communication, including social media, local news outlets, public service announcements, and town hall meetings.
• Encourage local agencies to ask their members for unmet needs.

Target specific sectors of your community.

• Some religious, economic, racial, non-English speaking, or ethnic sectors may be less willing to share their needs or reach out for help.
• Communicate with these groups individually, such as by canvassing areas with a high density of one or more of these populations. If possible, send a team member who can break down communication barriers and empathize with these groups.

Engage the local religious community, NGOs, and nonprofits.

• Reach out to local religious leaders for data – residents often report damage to the leader of their congregation, but not to the local government.
• Set up tables at local religious institutions to talk with community members on their way in and out of services.
• Consider including leaders from community organizations on your unmet needs assessment team.

Implement a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with FEMA, the Small Business Administration, insurers, and other local agencies as quickly as possible.

• Ideally, emergency management should have MOUs in place before a disaster hits. If not, implement them as soon as possible to ensure you have access to available data sources.
• Have this HUD sample form for requesting data from FEMA on hand to expedite the data retrieval process.
• Don’t forget to have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) or a similar agreement in place with local churches, insurers, NGOs, and other nonprofits.

Track assistance received from other sources to avoid duplication of benefits.

• Your unmet needs assessment cannot include needs that have already been covered by other sources of assistance, such as FEMA, SBA, insurance, and local or national charities.
• Your unmet needs can include projects that other disaster assistance has not been applied to, or to fulfill the remaining need on projects that other assistance has been applied to.
• For example:
  • If your city incurs $60 million in home damage, but homeowners’ insurance has already covered $40 million, your unmet need is only $20 million.
  • If five of your bridges are damaged but FEMA provides assistance to repair three of them, CDBG-DR funds can be used to repair the remaining two.