Did President Joe Biden announce in a White House briefing that the Los Angeles fire survivors would receive a one-time payment of $770 as their only form of government assistance? No, that's not true: The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said survivors in hotels would be reimbursed. The $770 is a separate type of assistance called Serious Needs Assistance.
The claim appeared in an X post (archived here) on January 13, 2025. The caption read:
Biden just gave $3.5 billion for Ukraine's gov pension fund. $770 to the LA fire victims.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Jan 14 14:20:11 2025 UTC)
In the 31-second clip, Biden states:
And I want to be clear, we're not waiting until those fires are over to start helping the victims. We're getting them help right now as you all know. People impacted by these fires are going to receive a one-time payment of $770, one-time payment, so they can quickly purchase things like water, baby formula and prescriptions. So far, nearly 6,000 survivors have registered to do just that. And $5.1 million dollars has gone out.
This video clip came from the January 13, 2025, White House briefing (archived here) between Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Los Angeles firefighters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The part of the briefing seen in the claim starts at the 3:53 mark.
The post on X provided no additional evidence to support the claim that the $770 payment would be the only assistance victims would receive.
Later in the same January 13, 2025, briefing, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell spoke, saying survivors will also be imbursed for their hotel bills, in addition to the $770 from FEMA. At 20:02 she stated:
I think, right now, we have about eight shelters that are still open. The shelter numbers have been remaining at about 700 to 800, you know, day over day. Which means there's a lot of people that are staying with family and friends or they're staying in hotel rooms, and so that's one of the things we can cover. It's one of the programs through the Major Disaster Declarations we can reimburse these families for the hotel costs that they're experiencing now. In addition to giving them that Serious Needs Assistance of $770 ...
The $770 comes from FEMA's Serious Needs Assistance, which "helps survivors pay for ... expenses related to a disaster, such as food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies."
FEMA debunks the rumor that the agency will only provide victims with a one-time payment when they apply for assistance:
This is false. FEMA reviews each disaster assistance application individually to determine the types of assistance you are eligible to receive ... There are often misleading claims that FEMA will only provide a set amount of assistance to every person who applies. Amounts commonly stated in these misleading claims include $500, $750, and $1,000. It's important to remember that FEMA assistance is not one-size-fits-all and the assistance you receive is based on the information you provide when you apply. You may even receive multiple checks from FEMA of varying amounts ranging from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.
The post ends with the page warning readers of scams regarding FEMA payments:
Many scams also claim that you can call a phone number to receive a cash payment from FEMA. Be careful of these scams as they are often designed to steal your money by pretending to be FEMA. FEMA's official disaster assistance helpline is 1-800-621-3362.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims surrounding the Los Angeles fires are here.
