Know Your Rights: Housing and Shelter for People with Disabilities During Disasters and Emergencies

This Know Your Rights resource is intended primarily for California Residents, and references programs and services specific to the state of California.

Climate change is contributing to a rise in occurrences of extreme heat and cold, wildfires, floods, and power outages. People with disabilities are at a heightened risk of harm during such catastrophic events. For example, people with spinal cord injuries may not be able to keep a safe body temperature naturally, making them particularly vulnerable in extreme heat or cold. Some medications, such as psychotropic medicine, also make it harder to regulate one’s own body temperature. A power outage can have life-threatening consequences for people relying on electricity to power medical equipment or refrigerate medication.

In an emergency, access to accessible housing and shelter is crucial for people with disabilities. Additionally, people with disabilities often have different, disability-related needs than other individuals that must be accommodated and addressed during an emergency. Knowing your rights and what to do before, during, and after an emergency can ease a disaster’s harmful effects.

Right to Notice: Public warnings, alerts and updates about emergencies, information regarding the location of available accessible shelter, and other related information must be communicated in an accessible way.

Right to Accessible Transportation: Transportation to emergency shelter during an evacuation must be accessible to people with disabilities, including people who use wheelchairs.

Right to Accessible Shelter: Emergency sheltering programs must be accessible to people with disabilities, including people who use wheelchairs. Before designating a facility as an emergency shelter, emergency managers1 and shelter operators need to determine if it is accessible. They should look at the parking facilities, the walkways to the entrance, the entrance, toilets, bathing facilities, drinking fountains, sleeping area, food distribution and dining quarters, first aid and medical units, emergency notification systems, and other activity and recreation areas.

Right to Reasonable Accommodations: Emergency shelters must provide changes, exceptions, and adjustments to their rules, policies, practices, or services when necessary for a person with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy the shelters’ facilities, programs and services. For example, emergency shelters must modify “no pets” policies to allow people to be accompanied by their service animals.

Right to Effective Communication: Emergency shelters are required to provide auxiliary aids and services to ensure that communication with people with communication disabilities are effective. This may mean providing a reader to someone who is Blind or low-vision, or providing an ASL interpreter for someone who is Deaf. What is “effective” in a situation will depend on factors like the person’s regular way communicating, the nature, length, and complexity of the communication, and the context of the communication.

There are a number of things you can do to prepare yourself for emergencies and disasters before they happen. For example:

1. Sign up for local emergency alerts: Emergency alerts from county or local government officials can quickly give you important life-saving information. These free alerts will tell you when there is possible danger, a natural disaster, or an emergency and what you should do to stay safe.
2. Download IPAWS for national alerts: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a national system for providing members of the public with emergency and life-saving information through mobile phones called the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS).
3. Apply for the Disability Disaster Access & Resource (DDARC) program: The DDAR program provides support to people with disabilities before, during and after wildfire safety outages. The DDAR program can help you:
   1. Create an emergency plan;
   2. Sign up for the Medical Baseline Program – a program that can provide you with additional notification before a shutoff, as well as additional amounts of energy;
   3. Apply for a portable backup battery;
   4. Get ADA-accessible car rides and hotel stays during a PSPS or other wildfire safety power outage;
   5. Provide vouchers for food or fuel (i.e. propane for backup generators).
4. Apply for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): LIHEAP helps eligible low-income households with their heating and cooling energy costs, bill payment assistance, energy crisis assistance, weatherization, and energy-related home repairs.
5. Order free preparedness materials: FEMA has informational materials to help you plan for emergencies and disasters. They are available to you at no cost.
6. Make a Plan: Make a Family Emergency Plan quickly and easily with a fillable form provided by Ready.gov, a national public service campaign designed to educate and empower people to prepare for, respond to, and lessen the effect of emergencies and disasters
7. Build an Emergency Supply Kit: Put together the basic items your household may need in the event of an emergency.

In case of an emergency, you may need to evacuate your home and seek shelter. To locate emergency shelter near you:

1. Contact the Red Cross for the location of Red Cross shelters.
2. Text SHELTER and your ZIP code to 43362.
3. Visit the website for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to find a cooling center near you for relief during periods of extreme heat.

The Richard Devylder Disaster Relief Fund can replace critical assistive technology and other devices for individuals with disabilities affected by disasters across the state of California. The fund can also cover hotel stays for people with disabilities. In addition, FEMA has funding to help people after a disaster, including funds for temporary housing, home repairs, transitional shelter, reimbursement for living expenses, and rental assistance. Once emergency shelters have closed, you can apply for the Transitional Shelter Assistance Program of FEMA which provides short-term shelter for people who evacuated after a disaster but cannot return to their homes for an extended period of time. FEMA also provides funding for disaster-related medical expenses including loss of medical equipment, and disability-related expenses, such as the loss or injury of a service animal.

Federal:

• People with Disabilities – Ready.gov
• Are You Ready: An In-Depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness – FEMA
• The ADA and Emergency Shelters: Access for All in Emergencies and Disasters – U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
• ADA Checklist for Emergency Shelters – U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

California:

• CalOES – California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
• Emergency Preparedness and Resiliency Program – Center for Independent Living, Inc.
• Electric Utility Program Shutoffs – Disability Rights California
• Wildfire Resource Guide and How Disability Rights California Can Help You – Disability Rights California

Other:

• Documentary: The Right to Be Rescued – Rooted in Rights
• A Disaster Justice Guidebook for People of Color with Disabilities – SeededGround

<id=”fn1″>1. The term “emergency manager” refers to the person who is responsible for coordinating all aspects of a community’s emergency management programs and activities.↩