
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded more than $1.5 billion to help Puerto Rico recover from hurricanes Irma and Maria. The funds were provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program to support long-term recovery of seriously damaged housing and local businesses on the island.
HUD deputy secretary Pamela Hughes Patenaude announced the disaster recovery grants with Governor Ricardo Rosselló in Puerto Rico last week.
Last year, President Donald Trump signed the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018, and the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2017, which appropriated $7.4 billion in CDBG-DR funding for major disasters declared in 2017. To distribute these funds, the Act requires HUD to direct the funds to the areas most impacted by qualifying disasters. HUD will continue to work with Puerto Rico to address its remaining unmet needs, the agency says.
In making the allocation to Puerto Rico, HUD relied upon data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) to determine the extent of unmet housing and small-business needs in the areas most affected by the disasters. HUD’s analysis found thousands of middle- and lower-income homeowners and renters who experienced serious damage to their residences and who were not adequately insured (or were uninsured) for their losses.
Similarly, businesses suffered serious damage not adequately covered by insurance or other resources. The grant announced today is designed to help meet needs not being met by private insurance or other sources of federal assistance.
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. According to HUD, it will issue administrative guidelines shortly for use of the funds to address grantees’ long-term recovery needs, particularly in the area of housing recovery.
Virgin Island Help
HUD has also awarded $242.7 million through the CDBG-DR program to help the U.S. Virgin Islands recover from hurricanes Irma and Maria. Just like grantees In Puerto Rico, grantees on the Virgin Islands are required to spend the majority of these recovery funds in “most impacted” areas as identified by HUD. The agency noted that it will issue administrative guidelines shortly for use of the funds to address grantees’ long-term recovery needs, particularly in the area of housing recovery.