HUD Awards Record $28 Billion to Help Hard-Hit Areas in Nine States, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands Recover From Major Disasters

WASHINGTON, April 10 -- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued the following news release:

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded nearly $28 billion to support long-term disaster recovery in hard-hit areas in nine states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These funds are provided through HUD's Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program and will address seriously damaged housing, businesses and infrastructure from major disasters that occurred since 2015.

The grants announced today represent the largest single amount of disaster recovery assistance in HUD's history and include more than $12 billion for major disasters that occurred in 2017 and nearly $16 billion to support 'mitigation' activities in areas that experienced major Presidentially declared disasters since 2015. Mitigation can broadly be described as actions taken to protect communities from the predictable damage from future events.

"It's clear that a number of states and local communities are still struggling to recover from a variety of natural disasters that occurred in the past three years," said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. "These grants will help rebuild communities impacted by past disasters and will also protect them from major disasters in the future."

Background

On February 9, 2018, President Trump signed Public Law 115-123, which provides $28 billion in CDBG-DR funding. Congress requires that these funds be used for two purposes:

Up to $16 billion to address remaining unmet needs from major disasters in 2017, including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria as well as California wildfires and subsequent mudslides. Congress specified that at least $11 billion of this amount be targeted to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with $2 billion targeted to repair and upgrade the electrical grid in these jurisdictions.

At least $12 billion to support mitigation activities among CDBG-DR grantees that experienced presidentially declared disasters from 2015 through 2017. After addressing remaining 2017 unmet needs, the Department is able to make an additional $3.9 billion available for mitigation, bringing amount available for mitigation to nearly $16 billion for recent CDBG-DR grantees.

CDBG-DR grants support a variety of disaster recovery activities including housing redevelopment and rebuilding, business assistance, economic revitalization, and infrastructure repair. Grantees are required to spend the majority of these recovery funds in "most impacted" areas as identified by HUD. HUD will issue administrative guidelines shortly for use of the funds to address grantees' long-term recovery needs, particularly in the area of housing recovery.

To View the Table Click Here: https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_18_028