absolutely true
my elderly parent's home was damaged severely by hurricane irma in 2017
when they looked into fema assistance they found out that fema only gives loans that you must pay back and if you don't fema can take your property
so my parents declined fema assistance and just went with what their homeowner's insurance would cover
also, it is also true that although fema assistance to American citizens is loan based, fema has given millions to illegal aliens which is not loaned based