Additional $5.1 Billion in Recovery Funds Headed for Hurricane Sandy Communities

A year after Hurricane Sandy devastated coastal communities in the Northeast, HUD has allocated a combined $5.1 billion through a second round of recovery funds to five states and New York City. Provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, these recovery funds will help affected communities meet remaining housing, economic development, and infrastructure needs.

HUD allocates CDBG-Disaster Recovery funds based on the best available data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration disaster loan programs, the Department of Transportation, and the Army Corps of Engineers to identify the areas of greatest need in the region hit by Hurricane Sandy. In this second Sandy allocation, grantees will be required to identify unmet needs for housing, economic development, and infrastructure and may use this allocation to address those unmet needs. Grantees will be required to incorporate a risk assessment in their planning efforts to ensure long-term resilience.

HUD, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which was established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will provide oversight to prevent and identify waste, fraud, and abuse. In addition, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, established by President Obama to coordinate the federal government’s efforts to support local rebuilding, has gone further by establishing a Project Management Office to monitor spending and progress to ensure the money is used as intended.