FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)

How it works

FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program helps communities implement hazard mitigation measures following a Presidential major disaster declaration. FEMA’s homeowner guide explains that homeowners cannot apply directly; local communities generally sponsor applications and submit them to the state, and only projects that meet local and state priorities move forward to FEMA.

What the money covers

FEMA’s homeowner guide lists examples of eligible homeowner-related projects, including:

• Mitigation reconstruction
• Dry floodproofing of historic residential structures
• Structural retrofitting of existing buildings
• Residential safe rooms
• Acquisition and structure demolition/relocation
• Wildfire mitigation, including fire-resistant exterior materials and clearing trees or brush from around the home
• Elevation
• Wind retrofits that strengthen roofs, walls, doors, and windows

Amounts and matching

A FEMA homeowner fact sheet for Virginia states that FEMA generally pays 75% of the project cost for HMGP projects. The federal HMGP overview page does not give a universal dollar cap.

How to apply

Homeowners do not apply directly. States, federally recognized tribes, territories, local communities, and private nonprofit organizations may sponsor applications.

Timing and deadlines

FEMA’s HMGP post-fire page says the application period opens with the state or territory’s first Fire Management Assistance Grant declaration of the fiscal year and closes six months after the end of that fiscal year for post-fire HMGP.