U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall welcomed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) approval today of the state’s plan to deploy $62.8 million in HUD funds the senators fought to secure in December 2013 to aid flood-recovery efforts. The funds, issued through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, will help communities rebuild homes, rehabilitate infrastructure projects and restore economic development in areas hardest hit by September 2013’s flood.
“This is another significant step for Colorado’s ongoing recovery efforts. These resilient communities have already done so much to rebuild, and now we can put more crucial resources to work,” Bennet said. “We will continue to push for additional support from HUD and other federal agencies. Colorado has come a long way on the road to recovery, but we won’t quit until every community has the assistance it needs to rebuild.”
“Colorado communities have worked incredibly hard and made tremendous progress to come back from the September flood seven months ago. I have been proud to work alongside them to secure every federal resource they need to rebuild their homes, businesses, roads and bridges. I am proud HUD has approved the state’s plans for these funds so that the cities hardest hit by the floods will have access to additional resources,” Udall said. “I will keep fighting to ensure we have the federal resources we need to rebuild stronger and better.”
The CDBG-DR Program makes federal resources available to rebuild communities affected by disasters, particularly in communities and neighborhoods that may struggle to recover due to limited resources. CDBG funds can be used to aid recovery efforts involving housing, economic development, infrastructure and prevention of further damage to affected areas. Among other uses, the funding could potentially help supplement repair and replacement costs for the thousands of Colorado homeowners impacted by the floods.
Bennet and Udall have led efforts to secure federal recovery aid for Colorado communities devastated by the 2013 floods. The senators led the effort that successfully lifted the cap on the amount of emergency transportation resources Colorado could access to rebuild damaged infrastructure. Additionally, the senators led efforts to secure more than $250 million from HUD’s CDBG-DR program to finance ongoing flood recovery work in Colorado.