MEMA's Disaster Housing Bureau focuses on pre-disaster planning. Unlike its name, the Bureau does not offer housing prior to or in response to a disaster. The Bureau is responsible for maintaining the office plans by ensuring plans are updated as needed. During an activation, the Bureau manages the Disaster Call Center to assist callers impacted by manmade or natural disasters. If a disaster is non-declared or federally declared, the Bureau supports the functions of the Individual Assistance and Disability Integration Bureaus.
The Disaster Housing Bureau oversees three types of Disaster Housing Task Forces: Incident-Specific, Core Advisory Group, and Regional.
- Core Advisory Group: The Core Advisory Group members are decision-makers within their organization who help the leadership fulfill the Disaster Housing Strategy’s mission, goals, and objectives. In addition to fulfilling the mission of the housing strategy and ensuring the goals and objectives are met, the responsibilities of the core team are to provide:
- Disaster housing situational awareness
- Recommendations to leadership
- Resources to address specific needs
- Incident-specific: The incident-specific task force responds to declared disasters to address survivors' unmet housing needs. This task force has responded to disasters such as the March 2023 tornadoes, which impacted six counties, the June 2023 tornadoes, which impacted Jackson and Jasper counties, and the April 8th—11th 2024 severe weather events.
- Regional: The regional task force provides situational awareness for disasters or hazards specific to MEMA’s nine Districts, such as hurricanes, winter weather, severe weather, and other events.
For more information, contact the Disaster Housing Bureau Director, Perry Overstreet: poverstreet@mema.ms.gov