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Confirm who can apply for FEMA Public Assistance, which facilities may qualify, and how ownership, legal responsibility, public use, and facility function affect eligibility after a declared disaster.
FEMA Public Assistance eligibility begins with the applicant. Before FEMA evaluates damage, work, facility eligibility, or cost, FEMA and the recipient must determine whether the entity requesting assistance is an eligible applicant. This page organizes the major applicant eligibility rules for State, Territorial, Tribal Nation, and Local governments, special districts, eligible private nonprofit organizations, PNP facilities, PNP services, SBA requirements, and emergency-service documentation.
Covers the basic FEMA eligibility sequence: applicant, facility, work, and cost. Applicant eligibility is the foundation of the eligibility pyramid because an entity must first qualify as an eligible applicant before FEMA evaluates the specific facility, disaster-related work, or claimed cost.
Covers the Request for Public Assistance, or RPA, which is the applicant’s formal entry point into the FEMA Public Assistance process. State, Tribal, Territorial, Local, and eligible private nonprofit entities generally submit the RPA through Grants Portal after a presidential declaration and area designation.
Covers State and Territorial government applicants, including the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and agencies or instrumentalities of those governments. The State or Territorial government commonly serves as the recipient and pass-through entity for subrecipients.
Covers federally recognized Tribal Nations, Tribal declaration options, recipient or subrecipient roles, and Tribal Nation applicant eligibility. Tribal Nations may request their own presidential declaration or participate under a State declaration, depending on the selected recovery structure and Stafford Act pathway.
Covers eligible local government applicants, including counties, parishes, municipalities, cities, towns, boroughs, townships, school districts, local public authorities, councils of governments, regional entities, interstate entities, agencies or instrumentalities of local governments, State-recognized Tribes, and other public entities that may apply through the appropriate government structure.
Covers special districts established under State law, including districts that finance, plan, establish, acquire, construct, operate, or maintain infrastructure and public services. These entities require special attention to legal authority, ownership, maintenance responsibility, public access, and whether the facility serves the general public.
Covers the first PNP eligibility test: whether the organization is an established private nonprofit. A PNP should be prepared to provide an IRS ruling letter in effect as of the declaration date granting tax exemption under section 501(c), 501(d), or 501(e), or State documentation confirming that it is a non-revenue producing nonprofit entity organized or doing business under State law.
Covers the second PNP eligibility test: whether the PNP owned or operated an eligible facility at the time of the incident period. FEMA evaluates the facility, its legal responsibility, its use, and the services provided. For PNPs with multiple buildings or multiple facilities, FEMA may evaluate buildings, support facilities, leased facilities, and shared-use facilities separately.
Covers PNP facilities that provide critical services, including education, utility, emergency, and emergency medical care services. Administrative and support facilities essential to the operation of an eligible critical service may also be eligible, but the facility must be tied to the eligible service and properly documented.
Covers PNP facilities that provide noncritical, but essential social services to the general public. These may include eligible community centers, senior services, health and safety services, custodial care, rehabilitation services, houses of worship, and other qualifying services when the facility is open to the general public and does not impose improper access, membership, fee, or geographic restrictions.
Covers facilities used for both eligible and ineligible services, facilities shared by multiple entities, and facilities leased to or from another entity. FEMA evaluates primary use, physical space, operating time, eligible service use, common space, ownership, and legal responsibility. If too much space or time is dedicated to ineligible use, the facility or affected portion may be ineligible or funding may be prorated.
Covers common PNP eligibility problems, including facilities established or primarily used for athletic, recreational, political, vocational, conference, retreat, or similar ineligible services. A facility that performs some eligible social services may still be ineligible if its primary purpose, documents, activities, space, or operating time show that it is mainly recreational or otherwise ineligible.
Covers the Small Business Administration loan requirement for PNPs that provide only noncritical essential social services. These PNPs may receive FEMA assistance for eligible debris removal and emergency protective measures associated with eligible facilities, but permanent work generally requires an SBA loan application and determination before FEMA funds costs not covered by the SBA loan.
Covers the special rules for PNP emergency protective measures. PNP emergency work is generally tied to protecting an eligible PNP facility and its contents. Broader emergency services are usually the legal responsibility of the applicable public entity. When a PNP provides emergency services at the request of a legally responsible public entity, the request, written agreement, certification, scope of services, costs, and reimbursement pathway should be documented so FEMA funding can be pursued through the eligible government applicant when appropriate.
Covers the applicant eligibility file needed to support FEMA review, recipient review, SBA coordination, Requests for Information, appeals, closeout, and audit. Key records may include governing documents, IRS or State nonprofit documentation, ownership or lease documents, maintenance responsibility, public access policies, service descriptions, calendars of use, floor plans, fee schedules, written emergency-service requests, contracts, insurance information, and records showing who was legally responsible for the work.
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