House Homeland Security Committee Issues Testimony From HUD Regional Administrator
"Chairman McCaul, Ranking Member Thompson, and members of this Committee, thank you for inviting the
"Before Harvey even made landfall, HUD's
"There has been exemplary collaboration, cooperation, and communications between HUD and
HUD's Initial Response
"In the response phase of a disaster,
"However, there are steps HUD can and did take in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Immediately after a presidentially declared major disaster, HUD offers states and local governments, homeowners, public housing authorities, and private owners of HUD assisted housing certain program flexibilities to assist the urgent needs of families impacted by the disaster.
"Some of those flexibilities include:
* Providing state and local units of government the ability to redirect their existing block grant assistance to meet the urgent needs of their citizens;
* Offering and simplifying the notification process for 19 regulatory and administrative waivers aimed at cutting red tape in the disaster recovery process. For example, HUD reduced red tape by reducing the comment period on certain HUD formula funding from 30 days to seven days, suspending rules to allow CDBG grantees to replace affordable housing units that were lost as a result of the hurricanes and flooding, suspending the cap limiting CDBG expenditures for public services to 15 percent, and allowing CDBG grantees to pay for additional support services for individuals and families affected by the hurricanes; and
* Immediately issuing a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for homeowners with mortgages insured by the
"The work of HUD's staff has been commendable. They worked tirelessly with
"Moreover, nearly 100 HUD employees from other parts of the country volunteered to help
"HUD played an integral role in initial response and recovery and will continue to support, along with the help of
Disaster Strike Team
"HUD created a Federal/State Long-Term Recovery Strike Team last November to support the long-term planning needs of smaller, more rural areas severely impacted by Harvey. The concept was simple: reach out to these communities, cut red tape, and get them help. HUD did not ask that they travel to
Long-term Disaster Recovery
"
"On
"In allocating CDBG-DR funds, HUD relies on information from
"CDBG-DR grants support a wide variety of activities including housing redevelopment, business assistance, and repair of damaged infrastructure.
"In addition, HUD staff contacted hundreds of local public housing authorities throughout
Recovery Planning
"Unfortunately,
"To date, HUD made two CDBG-DR allocations to the state in response to Harvey - the
"In February,
"In closing, our prayers continue to be with those families and individuals still recovering from these devastating hurricanes. HUD will continue to work with
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