What financial help is available if insurance doesn’t cover your rebuild?

FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program provides grants when insurance doesn’t fully cover your losses. For federal fiscal year 2026, the maximum award is $44,800 for Housing Assistance and $44,800 for Other Needs Assistance, adjusted annually. Most homeowners receive far less than the maximum. This program is meant to help you meet immediate needs, not fund a full rebuild.

Separately, FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds mitigation projects like elevating or retrofitting a home, but homeowners access it through their local government’s application, not directly. Federal funding typically covers up to 75% of an approved project’s cost.

For most homeowners, an SBA disaster loan is the primary way to finance repairs and rebuilding beyond what insurance and FEMA grants cover:

• Up to $500,000 to repair or replace your primary residence, including upgrades needed to meet current building codes
• Up to $100,000 for household and personal belongings
• Up to 20% of your verified loss (capped at $500,000) specifically for mitigation measures, like the FORTIFIED upgrades covered elsewhere on this site
• Interest rates capped at 4% for borrowers who can’t get credit elsewhere, or 8% for those who can
• Terms up to 30 years, with payments starting 12 months after your first disbursement

SBA deducts any insurance payout from your eligible loss before calculating your loan, so this isn’t money on top of your settlement. It’s designed to cover what your settlement doesn’t.

Separate from disaster recovery, several states now run direct grant programs specifically to help homeowners harden their homes before or after damage, not just repair what broke:

• My Safe Florida Home offers free wind mitigation inspections and matching grants up to $10,000 for hurricane upgrades, including roof improvements, impact windows and doors, and garage door reinforcement. Lower-income homeowners (80% or below area median income) can receive the full amount with no match required. Moderate-income homeowners get a 2-to-1 state match, meaning the state contributes $2 for every $1 the homeowner spends, up to $10,000.
• Strengthen Alabama Homes pays up to $10,000 toward a FORTIFIED Roof for owner-occupied homes statewide (counties open on a rolling schedule). It’s funded through insurance premium taxes.
• Kentucky and Oklahoma are rolling out similar programs modeled on Alabama and Florida.

These programs typically require you to select a licensed, and sometimes program-approved, contractor, and most work as reimbursement: you pay the contractor, then submit paid invoices and inspection documentation to receive your grant funds back.

Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding, known as CDBG-DR, is the slowest-moving but often largest source of homeowner rebuilding help. Congress allocates funds to HUD, which awards them to states and counties to run multi-year recovery programs.

CDBG-DR housing programs have taken an average of 3.8 years from disaster to completion (Urban Institute study for HUD). A recent example: Hillsborough County, Florida’s program for the 2024 hurricanes, funded with roughly $709 million from HUD, opened homeowner applications about two years after the storms and offers up to $350,000 for a full rebuild or replacement, plus smaller reimbursement grants ($10,000-$50,000) for eligible repairs already completed, and up to $150,000 for repairs not yet done, with income eligibility limits.

This isn’t a source to count on for immediate help, but it’s worth knowing about and watching for if your area receives a disaster declaration with CDBG-DR funding attached.

Every one of these programs is built to fill gaps, not stack on top of your insurance payout. This principle is usually called avoiding “duplication of benefits,” and every program enforces it:

• SBA loans subtract your insurance settlement from your eligible loss before setting your loan amount, and may require you to apply insurance proceeds toward the loan if you receive them after the loan is disbursed.
• FEMA and HMGP funding cannot pay for costs your insurance already covered.
• State mitigation grants typically fund the upgrade itself (a stronger roof, impact windows) rather than storm repair, so they usually don’t overlap with a standard insurance payout at all.
• CDBG-DR programs typically state clearly that they reimburse costs not covered by other sources, and most allow you to have already received FEMA assistance and still qualify for the gap that remains.

The practical takeaway: keep clear, organized records of what your insurance paid for and what it didn’t, since every one of these programs will ask, and inconsistent documentation is one of the most common reasons an application gets delayed or denied.