What Happened?
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is currently soliciting applicants for its National Disaster Resilience Competition. The competitive grant program aims to provide communities recovering from natural disasters to rebuild and implement preventative measures for the future.
The Details
HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition provides $1 billion in federal grants through the Community Development Block Grant program focused on the Super Storm Sandy recovery. The Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program offers flexible grants to cities, counties and states that have been hit with Presidentially-declared disasters such as:
- Heat waves
- Hurricanes
- Severe storms
- Tornadoes
- Drought
- Wildfires
- Floods
Communities can use funding to not only overcome past disasters but also become more resilient to future storms. Grant recipients are encouraged to use the funds to complete innovative resilience projects as well as adopt new policies to better prepare for extreme weather and climate change.
The Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program allocates $820 million to states and local governments that experienced a disaster in 2011, 2012 and 2013. An additional $180 million is set aside for states in the Hurricane Sandy-affected region to address critical housing needs established by HUD’s Rebuild by Design competition. The competition offers special consideration for low-income communities that might not otherwise be able to fully recover from the devastation.
Full press release
More information on the National Disaster Resilience Competition
Grant program eligibility information