Federal officials are allocating more than $134 million to Mississippi to support local communities’ recovery from major storms that struck the state in 2023 and 2024.
The money comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of nearly $12 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds for communities across 24 states and territories. In Mississippi, funding will go toward aiding areas pillaged by severe storms, straight-line winds, and tornadoes in late March 2023, mid June 2023, and mid April 2024.
RELATED: FEMA to host housing and preparedness summit in Rolling Fork on Saturday
“Over the last two years, too many communities have been impacted by devastating disasters – damaging homes, destroying infrastructure, and stretching local capacity to recover,” HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman said.
“This $12 billion in disaster discovery funds will help rebuild homes, develop affordable housing, assist impacted small businesses, and repair roads, schools, water treatment plants, and other critical infrastructure. The impacts of these funds will be felt for years to come – especially for disaster survivors and communities in the most impacted areas.”
To provide guidance for the implementation of this funding, the federal government published the Universal Notice for Community Development Block Grants – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). Per officials, the Universal Notice is expected to strengthen and improve the administration of grants, incorporating feedback received from grantees, stakeholders, and survivors of disasters.
For the first time, HUD requested public input through the 2022 request for information on CDBG-DR rules, waivers, and alternative requirements. The federal agency received more than 700 unique comments offering feedback on how to make disaster recovery faster and more efficient, effective, resilient, and equitable.
The most recent allocation of CDBG-DR funding and the guidance in the Universal Notice is anticipated to enable 47 grantees – including 23 states, 15 counties, 8 cities, and one territory – to recover from and build resilience to weather-related disasters. This funding supports disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, economic revitalization, and mitigation, in the most impacted and distressed areas.
As the
Read original article by clicking here.