The Federal Emergency Management Agency supplies states with funding to run buyout programs for homes and other properties hit hard by storms and floods. The process of applying for a buyout can be bureaucratic and rife with delays, and state officials in Vermont are working to make it flow more smoothly for municipalities and individuals.
Vermont Edition spoke with Stephanie Smith, the State Hazard Mitigation Officer for Vermont Emergency Management, about the state and federal buyout programs. The following transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Tell us about the broad strokes of the home buyout program in Vermont. How does it work?
Yes, so we have a couple of different programs that can fund buyouts in the state. The base of the buyout program is that we are able to offer property owners who were flooded a day-before-the-storm current market appraisal to purchase their structure if it has been impacted by a flood. The vast majority of people we're talking to right now are people who were impacted last July, or more recently within this this flooding event last week.
Talk to us about how the funding for this program works. The federal government plays a major role, right?
Yes, the majority of our funding comes from FEMA and is managed by the state through Vermont Emergency Management. We do also have a state program, but the majority of that comes through what's called the hazard mitigation grant program. So whenever we have a federally declared disaster, based on the scale of that event, we get a certain amount of money to do proactive risk reduction work across the state.
The funding that we were talking about before last week is the funding following the July flood of 2023, which we're anticipating is going to be about $90 million federal, and then the state is going to be paying the 25% match. So all of those projects will be 100% funded with FEMA and then a state match.
Give us a sense of far of the numbers. How many homes have have been bought out due to the July 2023 flooding so far?
Unfortunately, the process takes time. So on the FEMA side, none of the properties have been purchased yet. So we have 57 properties that are in FEMA review. We're not holding these applications. We're supporting the property owners, we're supporting the towns and getting the applications put together. And they're going to FEMA as soon as those are ready. So that's 57 properties in FEMA review right now. We started submitting those back in November of last year. We have one property that was just awarded by FEMA last week.
On our state program, we do also have funding through what's called the Flood Resilient Communities Fund. There was a little bit of funding left when the flood hit last July. So we obligated the last couple of million dollars under that flexible state program to the buyouts that were not FEMA eligible last fall. And in that program, we have four buyout properties in Hardwick where those projects are complete — the structures have been demolished — and then 12 additional buyouts across the state that are in process under that more flexible state program.
What takes so long?
Yeah, that's a good question. There are a lot of steps, the property owner needs to be on board, the town needs to be on board. And then there's a series of forms and paperwork that we need to put together. So my team has been supporting the development of those applications, building the applications, and then sending them off to FEMA for review. So it's it's a state managed program, the state gets to determine what goes to FEMA for review and approval, but then FEMA has to review every single project, and none of the work can begin until we actually have an award from FEMA.
Why might someone be denied?
There's some eligibility criteria. One of the biggest reasons that projects end up not being eligible for FEMA funding is that the flood risk we see in Vermont is different than the flood risk that FEMA sees nationally. So they're really very focused on inundation flooding, which is water that comes up and spills out onto a floodplain. We certainly saw that in certain places, like in downtown Barre during this most recent flood. But one of the biggest risks we have in Vermont is actually erosion based flooding. It's a lot harder to show FEMA that those projects are cost effective if they're outside of that inundation area, the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area. So that's one of the reasons why we created the flood resilient communities fund in the first place — to allow us to do those other buyouts.
Can Vermonters be eligible for a buyout if they haven't been hit hard by by flooding or by erosion, but are worried about it? Maybe they've seen neighbors with houses that have been affected and want to get out before something bad happens.
You're not required to have past damage in order to be eligible. The intent is, let's remove vulnerability before bad things happen.
What about the eligibility of a mobile home owner who owns the house they live in, but not the land that it sits on top of?
Yes, those are some of the most complicated projects that we see because the ownership dynamics are different across a lot of different areas. So if we're purchasing an entire mobile home park, for example, we could give that person the value of their structure. Unfortunately, that might not be enough money, depending on the age of that structure, in order for them to be able to live somewhere else. So we have a pilot project that we're doing under our flexible funding that's specifically intended to try and address that gap down at a park in Brattleboro. We're still working through the process. And it's taking some time because we've never done this before.
Do you have any words of advice for folks who are either just starting this process, or who are who are stuck in the middle of the quagmire right now and are hoping to see the other side?
Absolutely. It's tricky. Since the flooding this week, we're getting a lot more questions and pressure to move things. And so we are doing everything we can to continue pushing those timelines.
FEMA is going to add additional support to start reviewing our projects. I just learned that today. So we are going to have additional support that will help will hopefully start getting things moving faster.
Broadcast live on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
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