R.I. gets $16M in second round of HUD Sandy funds

WASHINGTON – On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated $5 billion through a second round of recovery funds to five states and New York City. That figure included $16 million for Rhode Island.
Provided through the Community Development Block Grant Program, HUD said the recovery funds will help impacted communities meet their remaining housing, economic-development and infrastructure needs.
In February, one week after President Barack Obama signed into law the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, HUD allocated $5.4 billion to assist communities located in the most-impacted areas. Rhode Island received $3.2 million in that round, bringing the state’s total of HUD recovery funds to $19.2 million.
The second round of funding announced last week is intended to support remaining unmet recovery needs that continue to confront these communities one year after the storm.
In a news release, HUD said that it allocated CDBG-Disaster Recovery funds based on the best available data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration disaster-loan programs, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Army Corps of Engineers to identify the areas of greatest need in the region impacted by Hurricane Sandy. •