LOS ANGELES — About 1,400 households rebuilding after the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires could lose the disaster case managers who help them deal with insurers, mortgage servicers and federal relief programs when California's state-run program ends on October 31, according to reporting by The San Francisco Inquirer and the Associated Press. California's appeal for more federal money to sustain the program through the full 24 months the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) originally approved is still pending, members of Congress and the AP said.
Source: San Francisco Inquirer
Case managers help survivors whose recovery cannot be settled with a single application — pursuing temporary housing, documenting losses, challenging insurance decisions and working through FEMA or Small Business Administration requirements. The AP reported on October 16 that nonprofits were already deciding which clients could be transferred to other organizations and which might lose regular help, and that roughly 700 additional households were on a waiting list.
Source: Associated Press via WRE News
The funding dispute is over money beyond the original award. California asked for $28 million for case management after the fires; FEMA instead awarded about $13.2 million for 24 months, to be paid in four installments, according to the AP. Payments lagged — by August only one installment had arrived — and FEMA released the second and third installments, totaling $6.6 million, on September 30, the day the program faced a cutoff, according to Representative Judy Chu's office. On October 7, FEMA announced a final $3.3 million installment, bringing its total for the program to more than $13 million and supporting more than 3,000 survivors.
Source: San Francisco Inquirer
Separately, California asked in March for about $6.5 million more. In a September 24 letter to FEMA, Representatives Judy Chu and Brad Sherman and Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla wrote that FEMA's regional office in Oakland had declined the $6,568,265.60 supplemental request on September 11, citing insufficient cost justification; the lawmakers said the program then had 1,288 active cases. The state has appealed that decision. Chu, whose district includes Altadena, said on October 7: "FEMA must do the right thing and approve the State of California's appeal for additional supplemental funding to sustain DCMP through the full 24-month timeframe that FEMA itself approved."
Source: San Francisco Inquirer
The administration says the money it approved has been paid in full and that its tougher review protects taxpayers. FEMA's October release put total federal assistance for the Los Angeles disaster at $6 billion, including more than $183 million in individual assistance to more than 35,000 households, $3.1 billion in Small Business Administration loans and $2.4 billion for debris removal, and it called the removal of more than 2.7 million tons of debris "the fastest major debris-removal mission in U.S. history." A White House spokeswoman, Lauren Bis, told the AP the administration had obligated billions for the recovery and described Governor Gavin Newsom's request for a $15.7 billion supplemental appropriation as an attempt to pass blame for the recovery effort — the White House's characterization, which California officials dispute. The Inquirer said it asked FEMA, the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Senator Schiff's office and CORE, one of the nonprofits running the program, about the status of the appeal and what happens after October 31, and none had responded by publication time.
Source: San Francisco Inquirer