Governor Abbott And HUD Secretary Ben Carson Hold Press Conference On Disaster Recovery
Governor Greg Abbott today joined Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson, Senator Ted Cruz, Congressman John Culberson and local officials in Houston, Texas to discuss the $5 billion recently allocated to Texas for Hurricane Harvey and disaster recovery. This grant funding is being provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program for the rebuilding of housing, businesses, and infrastructure following Hurricane Harvey and previous flood events.
“Though Hurricane Harvey was the worst of storms, it brought out the best in the people of Texas,” said Governor Abbott. “In each community, so many lives were saved because of the courage and leadership of local officials and the efforts of our incredible first responders. These funds will help give communities the resources they need to continue recovering, and I thank HUD Secretary Ben Carson, as well as all of our federal partners, for their ongoing support throughout this process.”
This allocation comes as a result of the disaster supplemental recently passed by Congress, and is in addition to the $5 billion in CDBG funding previously awarded to Texas by HUD late last year. Local Texas officials can now implement a disaster recovery plan to identify their communities needs for these funds.
The CDBG-DR funding includes:
- $652,175,000 to help rebuild damaged homes, businesses and infrastructure.
- $4,297,189,000 for elevating homes, property buyouts, and hardening structures from wind and water to help protect Texas families from future storms.
- In addition, Houston received $61,884,000 and San Marcos $24,012,000 for mitigation of 2015 floods.