HUD announced a new office focused on equity for “not-so-privileged households” in disaster recovery efforts. Fla. and 4 counties will receive a combined $2.789B.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced an overhaul of the agency’s disaster recovery efforts: It created the Office of Disaster Management (ODM) in the Office of the Deputy Secretary, and the Office of Disaster Recovery (ODR) within the Office of Community Planning and Development. The change adds dozens of new HUD staff members to help expedite recovery processes as it allocated $3.391 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds.
Of that $3.391 billion, the State of Florida and four individual counties will receive $2.789 billion, or 82%. The rest of the allocated funds will go to communities in Alaska, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico.
Florida governments HUD disaster money total
- Lee County: $1,107,881,000
- Volusia County: $328,910,000
- Orange County: $219,712,000
- Sarasota County: $201,535,000
- State of Florida: $910,624,000
HUD Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman announced the funding and new HUD office in Ft. Myers on Wednesday. HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge made the announcement simultaneously in Jackson, Kentucky, which received nearly $300 million.
“HUD is committed to helping underserved communities in hard-hit areas recover from disasters,” Fudge said in her announcement. “We know that far too often, not-so-privileged households bear the brunt of weather-related disasters. We will ensure they have access to the resources they need to rebuild and recover, equitably. Today’s announcement sends a strong message: Equity is elemental to the disaster recovery work.”
HUD says the new system will streamline its disaster recovery and resilience work by increasing coordination, reducing bureaucracy and increasing capacity to get recovery funding to communities more quickly. It also says the process will be more transparent.
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