Clean Up DEBRIS Act

The Clean Up DEBRIS Act would modify federal disaster relief law to ensure that residents of condominiums, manufactured home parks, housing cooperatives, and common interest communities can receive federal debris removal assistance after natural disasters, similar to single-family homeowners. Currently, FEMA may deny debris removal reimbursement to local governments for these types of residential properties, leaving residents to pay special assessments through homeowners associations to cover cleanup costs that the federal government refuses to fund.

The bill would require the federal government to establish clear rules recognizing that debris removal from these residential properties serves the public interest when state or local officials determine the debris poses a threat to life, public health, safety, or economic recovery. This change would address what supporters describe as an inequity in disaster relief, particularly affecting residents in condominiums and manufactured home communities who pay property taxes but have been denied the same federal assistance available to other homeowners after hurricanes and other major disasters.