HUD PROVIDES ADDITIONAL $128 MILLION TO HELP ILLINOIS RECOVER FROM 2013 FLOODING
Chicago, Cook Co., DuPage Co., and State of Illinois to benefit from disaster recovery grants

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced the allocation more than $129 million to the City of Chicago, Cook County, DuPage County, and the State of Illinois to help these communities recover from devastating spring storms, strong winds and flooding. These grants are provided through HUD's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program to support long-term disaster recovery efforts in areas with the greatest extent of 'unmet need.'

The City of Chicago will receive $47.7 million; Cook County will receive $54.9 million; DuPage County will receive $18.9 million; and the State of Illinois will receive $6.8 million to support local recovery efforts following powerful storms and flooding that occurred from April 16 through May 5 of 2013.

To date, HUD has allocated more than $157 million to support long-term disaster recovery in some of Illinois' hardest-hit communities:

"Last spring's storms caused damage to thousands of homes and it was clear that we needed to do more to support recovery in Illinois," said Donovan. "HUD will stand with state and local leaders as they work toward a more resilient recovery and help those people and places that need this support the most."

The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, signed into law by President Obama on January 29, 2013, included $15.2 billion in CDBG-Disaster Recovery funding. HUD's CDBG-Disaster Recovery grants are intended to confront housing, business and infrastructure needs beyond those addressed by other forms of public and private assistance. Using a combination of data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA), HUD identified those states and local requiring the greatest assistance to recover in a resilient way from disasters in 2013.

HUD has designated DuPage and Cook County as "Most Impacted and Distressed" such that 80 percent of the funds need to be spent in those counties. Because 100 percent of the allocations to Chicago, Cook County, and DuPage County will be spent in those counties, HUD has determined that the State's allocation does not have a minimum expenditure requirement in these two counties and thus may address needs elsewhere in the state that it can demonstrate were "most impacted and distressed" by a federally declared disaster in 2011, 2012, or 2013. Other federally declared disasters in Illinois eligible for consideration by the state are severe storms in 2011 (FEMA designated disasters 1960 and 1961) and the severe storms and tornadoes of fall 2013 (FEMA designated disaster 4157).

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