Here’s the release from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and Governor Hickenlooper’s office (Val Beck, Charlene Guzman):
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced it approved Colorado’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Action Plan. The Plan outlines how Colorado will distribute $62.8 million in grant dollars received from HUD for flood recovery programs.
During a visit in December, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced the funding award and that it would go toward needs not addressed through other sources of public and private assistance such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration.With acceptance of this disaster action plan the long-term and sustainable disaster recovery can continue.
This grant will support recovery efforts in 18 Presidentially declared flood-impacted counties, with a majority of the funds going to the most impacted counties: Boulder, Larimer and Weld. Programs will focus on housing, public infrastructure, long-term planning and economic development and, as stipulated by the grant, 50 percent of the funds will be distributed to low- and moderate-income households.
“We are very pleased with this approval of our action plan for the $62.8 million in CDBG-DR funding. We greatly appreciate the efforts of HUD in working with our team to get to this as quickly as possible,” Hickenlooper said. “This grant will support long-term and sustainable disaster recovery efforts in the most impacted communities devastated by last year’s floods. The plan was developed with feedback from those impacted communities and will give Coloradans another resource to rebuild better and stronger.”
“From the moment the Presidential disaster declaration was made, HUD has been on the job, working with Congress to speed these much-needed funds to the State of Colorado,” HUD Rocky Mountain Regional Administrator, Rick M. Garcia said. “This funding is vital to helping Coloradoans rebuild their communities and HUD has been proud to partner with the State of Colorado and FEMA in this process.”
Applications for the funds will be available Friday, May 2, online at http://dola.colorado.gov/cdbg-dr/. The State will work with all applicants to release the money as soon as possible.
From the Longmont Times-Call (John Fryar) via the Loveland Reporter-Herald:
Programs funded by the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery grant are to focus on housing, public infrastructure, long-term planning and economic development, with 50 percent of the funds distributed to programs benefiting low- and moderate-income households affected by last September’s floods.
“We are very pleased with this approval of our action plan for the $62.8 million,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a Wednesday morning statement.
“This grant will support long-term and sustainable disaster recovery efforts in the most impacted communities devastated by last year’s floods,” Hickenlooper said. “The plan was developed with feedback from those impacted communities and will give Coloradans another resource to rebuild better and stronger.”
The state now will formally accept applications from communities for such programs as: household assistance, new housing construction, business grants and loans, agriculture grants, infrastructure repair grants, and strategic planning.
Colorado also is in line for getting another $199 million in federal CDBG-DR funds, and the state is preparing a separate action plan for spending that second round of flood recovery money.
Boulder County government and the county’s cities and towns have been working collaboratively on applications for the money they’re seeking from the first $62.8 million round of funding — an approach county officials said was intended to avoid local competitions for those dollars.