ACORN v. FEMA
On behalf of ACORN and individual hurricane survivors, we filed suit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to challenge, on constitutional due process grounds, FEMA’s procedures for notifying hurricane survivors of the reasons for FEMA’s determinations that they were ineligible for continued housing assistance benefits.
In August 2006, FEMA terminated housing rental assistance to thousands of evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The evacuees had been receiving short-term housing rental assistance under Section 403 of the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, but FEMA had found them ineligible for transition to long-term housing benefits under Section 408 of the Act. The complaint alleged that FEMA had violated the due process rights of hurricane evacuees denied long-term housing benefits by failing to provide adequate explanations of the reasons for FEMA’s ineligibility determinations. Because of the inadequacy of FEMA’s ineligibility notices, the evacuees were unable to mount meaningful appeals of FEMA’s decisions.
After converting our motion for a temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction motion, the court granted the motion and required FEMA to provide adequate notice of the reasons for FEMA’s ineligibility determinations. The court also ordered FEMA to restore Section 403 short-term housing assistance benefits to the evacuees pending receipt of the more detailed explanations and a chance to appeal and to pay the evacuees the short-term assistance benefits they would have received during the time that the preliminary injunction motion was pending.
FEMA filed a notice of appeal and a motion to stay the order pending appeal. The district court denied FEMA’s motion for a stay and, over the next seven weeks, held twelve status hearings to ensure FEMA’s compliance with the preliminary injunction. On December 2006, the court of appeals stayed two provisions of the preliminary injunction, but not the main relief sought by plaintiffs and ordered by the court: a detailed explanation for FEMA’s ineligibility decisions.
According to FEMA, the court’s preliminary injunction covered approximately 5,000 evacuee households that FEMA had determined to be ineligible. By the end of January 2007, as a result of this litigation, at least 1,063 evacuee households obtained the Section 408 housing benefits to which they were entitled but had been erroneously denied. At that time, all evacuees who could reasonably be located had received a more detailed notice and an opportunity to appeal. Therefore, we voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit.