NMA Blog

Today in the Federal Register, HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) published a notice on the allocations, common application, waivers, and alternative requirements for funds allocated to address unmet needs from disasters that occurred in 2017. This $10.03 billion allocation supplements the $7.4 billion in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds previously granted in February. The funds are part of the $28 billion allocated on April 10, 2018 under the Further Additional Supplemental appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2018. Specifically, the notice allocates the additional funding to Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and covers the following:

In a press release this week, HUD announced that it is approving a disaster recovery plan to help the U.S. Virgin Islands recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The action plan is funded through the Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG–DR) program, where HUD allocated $243 million in November 2017. As part of the action plan, various programs have been designed to address unmet needs that the U.S. Virgin Islands have identified in housing, infrastructure, and economic development recovery. More about these programs can be found in the press release. HUD also notes that for the additional $1.621 billion in CDBG–DR funding it allocated to the U.S. Virgin Islands back in April for similar purposes, HUD will be shortly issuing requirements governing those funds, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with other states allocated CDBG–DR funds, will be required to submit plans addressing the use of those funds as well.

In a press release last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it has awarded $28 billion in funding to support long-term disaster recovery in nine U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to the press release, the grants are funded through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG–DR) program. They include more than $12 billion for major disasters that occurred in 2017 and nearly $16 billion to support “mitigation” activities in areas that were impacted by major presidentially declared disasters since 2015. Mitigation is broadly described as “actions taken to protect communities from the predictable damage from future events.” A complete breakdown of the awards by year, grantee, awards based on remaining 2017 unmet needs, awards for mitigation, and the totals can be found in the press release.

HUD has been extremely busy with their disaster relief efforts in response to the numerous hurricanes and storms that have struck the U.S. Recently, they released a fraud alert to warn those affected by hurricanes to potential scams. In addition, HUD provided further information regarding their disaster relief efforts for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

In a press release yesterday, HUD announced that it will speed federal disaster relief to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and provide support to low-income renters and homeowners forced from their homes due to Hurricane Irma.