HUD Awards $1 Billion through National Disaster Resilience Competition

HUD Secretary Julián Castro and the Rockefeller Foundation recently announced the winners of the $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC). Through NDRC, HUD will provide funding for resilient housing and infrastructure projects to states and communities that were impacted by major disasters between 2011 and 2013.

The National Disaster Resilience Competition winners are California ($70,359,459); New York City ($176,000,000); Connecticut ($54,277,359); New Orleans ($141,260,569); Iowa ($96,887,177); Minot, N.D. ($74,340,770); Louisiana ($92,629,249); Shelby County, Tenn. ($60,445,163); New Jersey ($15,000,000); Springfield, Mass. ($17,056,880); New York ($35,800,000); Tennessee ($44,502,374); and Virginia ($120,549,000).

The competition took place in two phases, with final winners selected from previously announced 40 states and local communities designated as finalists. Finalists were then asked to submit specific projects that would advance their community’s resilience plans. More than 25 federal agencies or offices, and 100 industry experts were involved in the implementation of the 16-month long competition.

NDRC is funded through Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) appropriations provided by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013. NDRC was developed in response to requests from state, local, and tribal leaders seeking to build resilience and better prepare their communities for the impacts of climate change, following the model of the Rebuild by Design Competition, and the recommendations of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. The National Disaster Resilience Competition was designed to promote risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, and resilience planning in communities where the risks of disaster are projected to increase substantially due to climate change.