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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 50 February 2025 J O U R N A L Government HUD ALLOCATES $12B FOR DISASTER- STRICKEN COMMUNITIES T he U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has allocated nearly $12 billion in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CD- BG-DR) funds for communities across 24 states and territories. To provide guidance for the implementation of this funding, HUD also published the Uni- versal Notice for Community Develop- ment Block Grants—Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). To support recovery from Hur- ricane 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. These funds are critical—with tens of thousands of houses damaged or destroyed, more than 12,000 western North Carolinians are without safe housing. "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, the Honorable Adrianne Todman said. "This $12 billion in disaster discovery funds will help rebuild homes, develop afford- able 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." The Universal Notice will strength- en and improve the administration of CDBG-DR, incorporating feedback re- ceived 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 Alter- native Requirements. HUD received more than 700 unique comments offer- ing feedback on how to make disaster recovery faster and more efficient, effective, resilient, and equitable. "As Appropriations Chair, I worked hard to ensure the passage of a bill that would deliver meaningful disaster relief for real people who need help as soon as possible. Today's announce- ment is welcome news to communities across the country—including Spokane County in my home state—that have been struck by disaster and are count- ing on federal support to rebuild and get back on their feet," said Sen. Patty Murray, Vice Chair of the Senate Ap- propriations Committee. "This funding will help rebuild homes for families in dire need, help rebuild schools so kids can learn, help small businesses reopen their doors, and help repair critical infrastructure that communities every- where count on each and every day." This allocation of CDBG-DR fund- ing and the guidance in the Universal Notice will enable 47 grantees—includ- ing 23 states, 15 counties, eight cities, and one territory—to recover from and build resilience to weather-related disasters. CDBG-DR funding supports disaster relief, long-term recovery, res- toration of infrastructure and housing, economic revitalization, and mitigation, in the most impacted and distressed areas. CDBG-DR funding can be used to: • Replace damaged affordable housing and build it back more resiliently. • Strengthen infrastructure through repairs, upgrades, and activities to increase the resilience of public facilities and infrastructure includ- ing roadways, water systems, and utilities. • Support economic revitalization in- cluding support for small business- es, creation of jobs, and assistance for residents. • Implement disaster mitigation mea- sures to reduce the risk of damage from future extreme weather and disaster events. "The Universal Notice published today ref lects the input of communi-