Disability Prevalence and Community-Level Allocation of Hurricane Harvey Federal Disaster Recovery Assistance in Texas

Abstract

Disasters have severe implications for life and property, often requiring large-scale collective action to facilitate recovery. In the U.S., one key determinant of recovery is access to resources that mitigate damage losses and shorten disaster recovery trajectories. However, communities with the disabled present may be excluded from such services despite federal mandates for equal access and reasonable accommodations. We examined Hurricane Harvey federal recovery assistance distributions based on underlying community disability profiles. Through cross-sectional quantile regression, we used Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) direct-to-household administrative data at the zip code level regressed onto American Community Survey estimates of disability. We found that as the prevalence of disability increased in communities, the total dollar amount of FEMA direct-to-household assistance decreased, controlling for factors such as storm damage, poverty, population density, and race/ethnicity. Moreover, disability-related funding disparities were driven primarily by hearing-related disabilities, with disparities in funding widening as total assistance increased in communities. Such inequities in community-level funding have implications on how well communities may recover from disasters.