HUD has published an allocation notice for the March 2022 distribution of long-term recovery funds for 2020 and 2021 disasters. The notice, published in the Federal Register, details the requirements and rules regarding the implementation of long-term disaster recovery programs funded through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. The rules apply to the nearly $3 billion released to 10 states and territories that experienced disasters in 2020 and 2021: Alabama, California, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, Puerto Rico, and Tennessee.
The notice covers a wide variety of subjects relevant to states and territories implementing long-term recovery programs and mitigation measures to protect communities against future disasters. The funds can be used for a broad range of activities, including the construction of new housing, the repair of damaged housing, the building and protection of infrastructure, and the funding of economic development programs. Eighty percent of program funds must be spent within areas that were designated by HUD as “Most Impacted and Distressed” (MID) by a disaster, and 70% of program funds must be used to benefit low- and moderate-income households (though this provision is waivable). Non-mitigation activities must be directly related to the impacts of 2020 disasters and must meet a “national objective” of the CDBG program. A percentage of each allocation must be spent on mitigation efforts to strengthen communities’ abilities to withstand future disasters.
The states and territories receiving funds will create action plans based on these rules. After formulating these plans, which will detail proposed uses for funds, states and territories will collect public comments on the plans and ultimately submit them to HUD for approval.
HUD officials had touted new language used in a similar notice published earlier this year, explaining that the language bolstered transparency, encouraged public input, and increased equity in the program. The new language includes a requirement that any state or territory collect public comments when seeking to waive the requirement that 70% of program funds assist low- and moderate-income families. The new language also requires that states and territories include information on how programs would affect racial and ethnic minorities within disaster areas and that public comments receive direct responses. However, while the new language describes equity goals more explicitly, the program still leaves those states and territories directly running programs with the tasks of identifying potential discriminatory distributions of program funds and instances in which information is potentially inaccessible.
Because the CDBG-DR program is unauthorized, new notices are required whenever Congress approves funding under the program. The “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act of 2021” – supported by the NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) – would formally authorize the program and allow for a more permanent and equitable framework to be created, ensuring that funds reach disaster survivors more quickly. That bill, introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Susan Collins (R-ME), Todd Young (R-IN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and in the House by Representative Al Green (D-TX), would implement important safeguards to ensure that disaster funds reach those most in need.
Read the new notice at: https://bit.ly/39V0BAK