City presents housing needs after May tornado; task force estimates thousands at risk this winter

City officials told the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee that the May tornado worsened pre-existing housing instability in the impacted neighborhoods and that an immediate, coordinated response is required to prevent a large wave of winter displacement.

Noel Pfeffer, executive director of the Community Development Administration and co-lead of the city's housing recovery task force, said FEMA data show 11,420 households applied for assistance; after accounting for undercounts he estimated the true universe is closer to 14,000 households, representing about 30,000 people. "There was a crisis before the crisis," Pfeffer said, noting vacancy and low median sales prices in the affected area before the tornado.

Pfeffer and Dylan Holliam, the task force co-lead, said the task force's analysis shows roughly 5,000 homes require habitability repairs, about 2,600 homes are uninhabitable, and roughly 500 people were reported homeless at the time of the FEMA application. They said FEMA has provided about $23.5 million in housing assistance so far and that continued temporary housing assistance from FEMA has reached only a small fraction of eligible…