Asking Support for the Disaster Assistance Equity Act

Senior Partner Charlie Perkins forwards this post form the Community Associations Institute blog and would like readers to ask members of Congress to support H.R. 5298:

Community Associations Institute is pleased to announce the introduction of bipartisan legislation that expands access to FEMA disaster assistance to community associations. We are writing to ask you to contact your Member of Congress to urge them to cosponsor this legislation that helps community associations with disaster recovery efforts. 

About the Disaster Assistance Equity Act
The Disaster Assistance Equity Act will correct current inequities in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster response system. Under the current law, community associations affected by a presidentially declared natural disaster—blizzard, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, hurricane, or tornado—are NOT given the same FEMA financial recovery support for debris removal and other efforts as their neighbors.

  • Condominiums & Housing Cooperatives:  If this bill passes, individual owners in condominiums and housing cooperatives will be reimbursed for their fair share of repair or replacement of critical major common area elements like boiler rooms, elevators, roofs, etc.
  • Homeowners Associations:  If this bill passes, homeowners associations with privately-owned roads will be able to rely upon the locality (city, county, town, etc.) to remove debris from the private roads resulting in huge savings for association residents.   

Residents and taxpayers just like you, living in community associations pay the same federal taxes as residents living in non-deed restricted neighborhoods. The current system is flawed and unfair, but this legislation recognizes and improves these inequities for the 74 million people living in community associations. Click here to read the full bill text.  For a link to the CAI blog post, click below:

H.R 5298 — The Disaster Assistance Equity Act of 2021