HUD Awards $500 Million in Disaster Recovery Funds; Pledges Expedited Assistance for Southern States
Last week, HUD Secretary Julian Castro awarded $500 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds to Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia to help recover from severe flooding earlier this year. These recovery funds will help the most impacted counties that experienced the greatest level of damage to their housing stock. CDBG-DR grants can provide support for housing redevelopment, business assistance, and infrastructure repair.
According to HUD’s press release, “[i]n the hardest-hit counties of Louisiana (6 counties), Texas (3 counties), and West Virginia (2 counties), more than 102,000 households experienced some level of damage to their homes including more than 41,000 families who saw the most serious level of damage or destruction and unmet needs.” The following allocations of funds are based on each state’s proportional share of serious unmet housing needs:
Grantee | Amount |
| State of Louisiana | $437,800,000 |
| State of Texas | $45,200,000 |
| State of West Virginia | $17,000,000 |
TOTAL | $500,000,000 |
Also last week, Secretary Castro announced that HUD will expedite assistance to the States of North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia to address the impacts of Hurricane Matthew. The Department will help by: assisting the affected states and local governments in re-allocating existing federal resources toward disaster relief; granting immediate foreclosure relief; making mortgage insurance available; making insurance available for both mortgages and home rehabilitation; offering Section 108 loan guarantee assistance; and providing information to FEMA and the State on housing providers that may have available units in the impacted counties.