Responding to the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: Lessons from Relief and Recovery in New York City

Responding to the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: Lessons from Relief and Recovery in New York City A Report Prepared for the Ford Foundation By Tom Seessel The John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy Thomas Edison State College Trenton, New Jersey May 2003 Table of Contents Preface......................................................................................................................................1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.........................................................................................................2 Background and Introduction..................................................................................................7 Summary of Federal Aid.........................................................................................................9 Family Assistance Center (New York City).........................................................................12 Cash Benefits for Families of Immediate Victims...............................................................14 Philanthropic Victim Compensation......................................................................................15 Problems and Policy Issues...................................................................................................17 Aid for Small Businesses......................................................................................................18 Business Recovery Grants....................................................................................................19 Small Firm Attraction and Retention Grants..........................................................................20 Business Recovery Loan Program........................................................................................20 Assistance by State and City before Approval of Federal CDBG Funds.................................21 Problems and Policy Issues...................................................................................................21 Small Business Administration Loans...................................................................................22 Non-governmental CDFI Programs.....................................................................................24 FEMA Individual Assistance Programs.................................................................................25 Mortgage and Rental Assistance...........................................................................................25 Individual and Family Grants...............................................................................................29 Disaster Unemployment Assistance.......................................................................................31 Crisis Counseling.................................................................................................................32 Recommendations for FEMA.................................................................................................33 Disaster Relief Medicaid.......................................................................................................34 Results..................................................................................................................................35 Air Pollution...........................................................................................................................36 Health Monitoring.................................................................................................................37 World Trade Center Registry................................................................................................38 Employment Services............................................................................................................39 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................40 Alphabetical List of Persons Interviewed.............................................................................44 Agencies and Acronyms.........................................................................................................46 Preface This report supplements a Ford Foundation report released in August 2002 on the philanthropic response in relief and recovery for New York City following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Prepared under the auspices of Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey, that report found that Americans and people throughout the world gave in record numbers and amounts and that, “Despite lack of a reliable roadmap, philanthropic organizations, including donors and service providers, responded with unaccustomed speed and agility to the urgent humanitarian needs in both the immediate vicinity of the attack and in the wider New York region.” These responses were launched before it was known what assistance would be available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the lead federal disaster organization.