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State human services leaders urge nimble funding and cross‑jurisdiction collaboration after recent disasters
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Summary
Officials from California, Oregon, Hawaii and Louisiana described on‑the‑ground lessons—pre‑funding grants, rapid data‑sharing, modular housing, and language access—that sped assistance to survivors and reduced gaps during the Maui and western wildfires.
State human services officials told a federal convening that building standing capacity, pre‑funding early case management and leaning on peer states materially accelerate survivor support after disasters.
Jaren Tablien, chief of disaster services at the California Department of Social Services, said California has used state dollars to pre‑fund disaster case management so case managers can register and assist survivors before federal grants flow. “While we know when we find out that there's a major presidential disaster declaration … we pre fund the program,” Tablien said, describing DCMP awards that range from roughly $6 million to $20 million and noting California currently oversees multiple DCMP grants totaling about $55,000,000.
Ed Flick of Oregon described building a state‑run case management capability after 2020 wildfires because federal timelines were too slow to sustain long‑term recovery. “We realized the federal timeline … wasn't gonna be in a timely fashion,” he said, arguing states should develop persistent capacity to support survivors independent of declarations.
Hawaii officials described rapid operational pivots after the August 2023 Lahaina fires. Trista Spear and Joseph Campos said they used emergency data‑sharing agreements with FEMA and the Red Cross, supplemented interim private funding, and secured supplemental federal awards; Campos said the state developed a 50–57 acre site with roughly 450 modular homes to provide transitional housing for survivors.
Panelists repeatedly emphasized practical barriers that slow assistance: documentation requirements, language access, and workforce shortages. Several speakers urged standard playbooks and peer‑to‑peer state assistance—California and Oregon shared playbooks and staffed calls during Hawaii’s response—to reduce the time between incident and effective help.
Why it matters: State examples show programmatic fixes that shorten the gap between disaster impact and survivor service delivery: pre‑funding, data sharing to track displaced people, bilingual outreach and shared operational playbooks. Officials asked federal partners for more flexibility in program rules and predictable, rapid funding mechanisms so states can sustain case management and housing interventions.
