U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson today announced he is approving a disaster recovery plan to help Texans recover from Hurricane Harvey. In November, HUD Deputy Secretary Pamela Hughes Patenaude announced the allocation of more than $5 billion to the Lone Star State to support long-term recovery efforts.
The Texas plan is funded through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant—Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program which requires grantees to develop a thoughtful recovery program informed by local residents. Learn more about CDBG-DR and the State’s role in long-term disaster recovery (en español).
“The Trump Administration is committed to helping Texans impacted by Harvey to rebuild their homes and their lives,” said Secretary Carson. “As the State now turns to the long-term recovery of its communities, Texans can be sure that HUD will be there to help in any way we can to make the state whole again.”
To address remaining needs in hard-hit areas of the state, the Texas recovery plan includes:
- Single-Family Homeowner Assistance Program ($1.1 billion): Provides assistance to help homeowners with rehabilitation and reconstruction after Hurricane Harvey.
- Buyouts and Acquisitions ($275 million): To allow certain eligible homeowners to sell their damaged home to a local government.
- Affordable Rental ($250 million): Provides funding for rehabilitation, reconstruction and new construction of affordable multifamily rent properties.
- Homeowner Reimbursement ($100 million): Homeowners may be reimbursed up to $50,000 for certain out-of-pocket expenses incurred for home repairs, including reconstruction, rehabilitation or mitigation.
- Partial Repair and Essential Power for Sheltering ($73 million): Provides immediate, temporary repairs to homes that sustained less than $17,000 in FEMA-verified loss. CDBG-DR will be used as matching funds to FEMA expenditures.
- Local Infrastructure ($413 million): Supports infrastructure repairs and enhancements for local communities as part of a comprehensive long-term recovery program along with FEMA funding.
- Economic Revitalization ($100 million): Offers interim assistance up to $250,000 to small businesses in exchange for job creation or retention.
- Local, Regional and State Planning ($137 million): The State will fund planning studies on disaster mitigation in the impacted areas to promote sound long-term recovery.
- Allocations to City of Houston and Harris County ($2.2 billion): The State of Texas will provide $1.1 billion each to the City of Houston and Harris County, allowing these jurisdictions to address their unmet recovery needs. Plans for use of these funds will be submitted by the city and county to the State for approval.
- State Administration ($251 million): Funding set aside for the State’s program costs, including contract administration, compliance monitoring, the provision of technical assistance to applicants and subrecipients, etc.
Last April, HUD also allocated an additional $4.726 billion of CDBG-DR funding to Texas for unmet need and mitigation purposes. HUD will shortly issue requirements governing those funds, and Texas, along with other states, will be required to submit plans addressing the use of those funds. Read more about the additional disaster recovery/mitigation funding to Texas.
