HUD announced on January 8 that it would allocate $12 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds to 23 states and one territory that experienced major disasters in 2023 or 2024. The funds were made available by the passage of a record-breaking $110 billion disaster supplemental spending bill that also included $29 billion to support FEMA’s disaster recovery operations and more than $2 billion for Small Business Administration Disaster Loans. Advocates with the NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) pushed throughout 2024 for the maximum amount of long-term disaster recovery funding, leading to the largest single appropriation of long-term disaster recovery funds ever made.
As the only long-term funding for disaster recovery provided by the federal government, CDBG-DR funds are meant to address the “unmet needs” of disaster recovery that may not be met by other federal programs or funding sources. A flexible funding source, CDBG-DR funds can be used for housing, infrastructure, and economic development in the aftermath of a major disaster.
Unfortunately, since the CDBG-DR program is not statutorily authorized (i.e., is not a permanent program), HUD must rewrite the rules for the program whenever Congress appropriates funds, slowing the flow of resources to the disaster survivors who need them most. A bill endorsed by NLIHC and its Disaster Housing Recovery, Resilience, and Research (DHR) initiative, the “Reforming Disaster Recovery Act” (RDRA), would establish permanent rules for the program and institute reforms to ensure that funds reach the low-income households most impacted by disasters but who often receive the least assistance afterwards. While the RDRA has received record-breaking bipartisan support, it failed to pass in the last Congress.
HUD’s announcement means that $12 billion in long-term recovery funds will soon now head to disaster survivors in a broad swath of disaster-impacted jurisdictions. States with impacted areas receiving funds include:
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Read a press release on the allocations and find the list of states receiving CDBG-DR funding here.