WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has released $168 million for disaster mitigation projects in North Carolina, but it will be at least two weeks before the state is given the rules for how to use the money.
The money comes in the form of Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds, according to information from Sen. Thom Tillis’ office. The announcement comes two days after Tillis spoke with HUD Secretary Ben Carson and requested the federal agency expedite the release of the money.
“I’m grateful to Secretary Carson and President Trump for delivering on that promise to North Carolina and for their proven commitment to helping our state recover,” Tillis said. “Although relief after a natural disaster can never come soon enough, North Carolinians will now have additional resources that we fought hard to secure so that our state can rebuild more resiliently.”
North Carolina must wait for HUD to publish the Federal Register that releases $16 billion in disaster mitigation funds in two portions and sets the rules for how the money can be used. One portion of the money goes to Texas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, California, Missouri and Georgia. The second goes to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“Once the Federal Register Notice is published, the jurisdictions in the first tranche can start designing their plans for how they will use their mitigation funds,” a HUD press release reads in part.
The Federal Register will be published in the “next couple of weeks,” said Brian Sullivan, a HUD spokesman. States will use the rules and guidelines in the Register to design their mitigation programs.
“This is not to help recover from (Hurricane) Matthew,” he said.
The money and the Register is to help states take action to prepare for and reduce the damages from future disasters, he said.
States will design mitigation programs and submit those plans to HUD, Sullivan said. The federal agency will then approve those plans.
“HUD will approve them quickly,” he said.
It will then be up to the individual states to design the projects and decide how to implement them, he said.
“This is something the states have been waiting for,” Sullivan said.
The $16 billion mitigation package was allocated on April 10, 2018. Since then it has been stalled by concerns of corruption and financial mismanagement arising particularly from Puerto Rico.
“Recovery efforts in jurisdictions prepared to do their part should not be held back due to alleged corruption, fiscal irregularities and financial mismanagement occurring in Puerto Rico and capacity issues in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is why HUD will award disaster mitigation funds in two separate tranches,” Carson said. “Untangling these funds from each other will help recovery and planning move forward in communities capable of properly and prudently disbursing funds, all the while protecting taxpayers who are footing the bill.”
