HUD Announces Waivers to Help Kentucky Communities Recover from Severe Weather

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced a package of regulatory and administrative waivers aimed at helping communities in Kentucky accelerate their recovery from tornadoes and severe storms that occurred on December 12, 2021.

"HUD continues to enable swift response to these storms" said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs Kevin Bush. "With these waivers, we are giving our state and local partners in Kentucky the flexibility they need to more expeditiously respond to the needs of low- and moderate-income disaster survivors and rebuild from these severe storms and tornadoes."

The regulatory and administrative relief announced today covers the following HUD programs: The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Program, Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program. To expedite the use of these funds, HUD's state and local partners can now access a waiver through a new simplified notification process. HUD's flexibilities include:

• These severe storms disrupted communications networks. Therefore, HUD is waiving the normal communication requirements and allowing these grantees to determine what constitutes reasonable notice and opportunity to comment.
• These storms caused extensive damage and destruction to the housing stock in certain impacted areas. To accelerate new housing construction, HUD is suspending normal rules to enable CDBG grantees to replace affordable housing units that were lost as a result of severe weather.
• HUD recognizes that affected citizens may require additional time and effort to execute their recovery plans. Consequently, HUD will suspend a cap limiting CDBG expenditures for public services to 15 percent. HUD will temporarily allow CDBG grantees to pay for additional support services for individuals and families affected by severe weather. Services could include, but not be limited to, the provision of food, emergency shelter, case management and related services to help residents in declared-disaster areas until long-term recovery resources become available.

Read more about the regulatory and administrative relief announced today.

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