What Will FEMA Want to Know When I Apply for Disaster Assistance?
Filling out a FEMA application can be unsettling when you are still experiencing the results of a natural disaster firsthand. It helps to know in advance what information and documents you’ll need to provide to verify your identity, occupancy, and other details related to your disaster-caused losses. Below are helpful details on what data and documents will be needed to apply with FEMA.
Information needed when you apply for FEMA Disaster Assistance:
- Your phone number and the address, including zip code, of the damaged property
- Contact information after the disaster, including phone number, alternate residential address or email address to receive electronic notifications
- Your Social Security number
- Insurance information, including settlement letter if you received it
- Condition of your damaged home, if known, and personal property losses
- Your annual household income (for possible referrals)
- Bank account information, if you would like your assistance provided via direct deposit
Documents needed to verify:
- Identity: Your Social Security number, state driver’s license, state ID, or voter registration card
- Ownership and vital records (birth, death, marriage): Los Angeles County residents directly impacted by the fires can request property records and vital records at no cost to support their recovery.
Contacts:
- Vital records: (888) 985-9913
- Property records: (800) 201-8999, option 3
- Email for both: RRCCFireAssistance@rrcc.
lacounty.gov - Occupancy: FEMA will usually verify your occupancy and ownership through a public records search. If they can’t, they may ask you to provide additional documents such as:
- A lease or housing agreement, rent receipt, motor vehicle registration, or a utility or other bill, or bank or credit card statement, mailed to your address. If these documents have been destroyed, contact your mortgage company, landlord, vendors, employer or bank.
- A public official’s signed statement. If you cannot access documentation to prove occupancy, you may provide a written statement from a public official, member of a tribal council, homeless outreach advocate, etc. It must include your name, location of residence, dates of occupancy, and the official’s name, title, signature and contact information.
- Annual household income: Pay stub, tax returns, W2 forms
- Bank account information: Bank statement
- Damage to your property: A description of the damage caused, photos of the damage. Receipts to verify expenses caused by the disaster.
For information on replacing documents lost in the wildfires: Replacing Lost Documents after Los Angeles County Wildfires.
Apply for FEMA Individual Assistance online at DisasterAssistance.gov (fastest option); on the FEMA App (available at the Apple App Store or Google Play); by phone at 800-621-3362 (if you use a relay service, give FEMA your number for that service) or visit a Disaster Recovery Center (DRC); to locate a DRC near you, visit the DRC Locator.
