The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Tuesday announced the allocation of nearly $12 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds for communities across 24 U.S. states and territories. This money is designed to go toward long-term recovery efforts for communities impacted by recent natural disasters.
The announcement — made in Asheville, North Carolina, by HUD acting secretary Adrianne Todman and newly minted North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein — will aim to support recovery efforts from several recent disasters. These include hurricanes Helene and Milton in the fall of 2024, as well as the 2023 wildfires that devastated Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
“To support recovery from Hurricane Helene, HUD allocated more than $1.6 billion to communities across North Carolina, including $225 million to the city of Asheville and $1.2 billion to the state for disaster impacted communities statewide,” HUD explained. “These funds are critical — with tens of thousands of houses damaged or destroyed, more than 12,000 western North Carolinians are without safe housing.”
Earlier in the day, Stein toured the devastation in Old Fort, North Carolina, and local media had reported his planned appearance alongside Todman for Tuesday.
“Over the last two years, too many communities have been impacted by devastating disasters — damaging homes, destroying infrastructure and stretching local capacity to recover,” Todman said. “This $12 billion in disaster recovery funds will help rebuild homes, develop affordable housing, assist impacted small businesses, and repair roads, schools, water treatment plants and other critical infrastructure.”
Todman added that the impact of these funds “will be felt for years to come, especially for disaster survivors and communities in the most impacted areas.”
Alongside the announcement, HUD also published a new universal notice for CDBG-DR funds. The goal is to “strengthen and improve the administration of CDBG-DR, incorporating feedback received from grantees, stakeholders, and survivors of disasters,” HUD explained.
In a 2022 request for information, HUD solicited public input on CDBG-DR rules, waivers and alternative requirements, receiving more than 700 comments in the process. The feedback helped to make disaster recovery processes faster, more efficient and more effective, the department claims.
Lawmakers also weighed in on the move. Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who work on the Senate appropriations committee, lauded the additional funds for the relief they could bring to their states. Murray specifically pointed to Spokane County in eastern Washington, while Schatz said the funds will be a boon for the recovery of Lahaina.
The full list of states and communities receiving funds is available on HUD’s website.
