Assistance program
Presidential Declared Disaster Assistance to Individuals and Households - Other Needs
$37.5 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, Department of
- Assistance
- Direct Payments for Specified Use
- CFDA number
- 97.050
- What it does
- This type of assistance supports disaster recovery by providing financial assistance for Other Needs Assistance to disaster survivors who, as a direct result of a major disaster or emergency, have necessary expenses and serious needs that are unmet through insurance or other means. This assistance is administered by the state, territorial, or tribal government or jointly between the state, territory, or tribe. Performance metrics for this program are established in accordance with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993, as amended by the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, to include: • Goal of 90% applicants satisfied with the simplicity of the Individuals and Households Program • Goal of an average of less than seven days for the timeliness of providing Individuals and Households Program awards, excluding Critical Needs Assistance and Clean and Sanitize Assistance • Goal of 68% applicants confident in FEMA Individuals and Households Assistance • Goal of 70% applicants satisfied with FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program application process Data gathering methodology for measuring performance and results is conducted through quarterly surveys with disaster survivors.
- Who benefits
- Individuals and households, in areas declared an emergency or major disaster by the President that includes Individual Assistance, who have necessary expenses and serious needs caused by the major disaster or emergency that they are unable to meet through insurance or other means, are eligible for Other Needs Assistance.
- Who applies
- Individuals and households, in areas designated in an emergency or major disaster declaration under the Stafford Act for Individual Assistance, who have necessary expenses and serious needs they are unable to meet through insurance or other means, may be eligible for Other Needs Assistance. Basic conditions of eligibility include: the individual or a member of the household must be a citizen of the United States, a non-citizen national, or a qualified alien; FEMA must be able to verify the applicant’s identity; the applicant’s insurance, or other forms of disaster assistance received cannot meet their disaster-caused needs; and the applicant’s necessary expenses and serious needs are directly caused by the major disaster or emergency. In addition to this general eligibility criteria, each type of Other Needs Assistance has additional eligibility requirements, like verifiable documentation of the disaster-caused expense. FEMA collaborates with the Small Business Administration (SBA) to determine eligibility for Personal Property, Transportation, and a Group Flood Insurance Policy. Applicants who are referred to the SBA for a disaster loan to cover these types of assistance must complete an application and be denied by the SBA or only receive a partial loan, in order to be considered for these types of assistance from FEMA.
- Authorized by
- Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as amended
- Program site
- http://www.fema.dhs.gov ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how this program's money is paid out.
Direct payments
$37.5B
100%
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments