U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro awarded a total of $500 million last week to help Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia to recover after severe flooding events that occurred earlier this year. Provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program, these recovery funds will assist the most impacted communities that experienced the most serious damage to their housing stock.
President Obama signed the Continuing Resolution into law on September 29, 2016. This stopgap spending measure directed HUD to allocate $500 million “in the most impacted and distressed areas” that experienced presidentially declared disasters in 2016, but prior to September 29th. As a result of this limitation, HUD considered all 33 major disasters that occurred within this period of time. Areas effected by Hurricane Matthew are not eligible as for these funds as disaster declarations for Matthew occurred after the Continuing Resolution became law.
“Immediately after President Obama signed this spending bill into law, my team began identifying the strongest cases to receive disaster recovery funds,” says Secretary Castro. “These three states – Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia – experienced intense and destructive flooding causing great damage to residents’ homes and draining state resources. Today, we make a critically needed investment to help these communities recover and help families rebuild their homes.”
For more information, visit www.hud.gov.
