Officials with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development came to Joplin today to award the City of Joplin $45,266,709 in disaster recovery funds to the City, to support its efforts to recover from last year’s devastating tornado.
HUD Deputy Regional Administrator, Theresa Porter, made the presentation at City Hall, noting that Joplin has a long history with receiving Community Development Block Grant funds annually through HUD’s Entitlement Program. HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.
City Manager Mark Rohr and Mayor Pro Tem Bill Scearce accepted the award for the City. Rohr noted that the $45 million CDBG-DR funds will be used to fulfill this mission in Joplin.
“Since the disaster we have worked with many agencies and support organizations at both the state and federal level,” said Rohr. “This award will help the City continue assisting our citizens affected by the disaster. We want to thank HUD, and also give a special thanks to U.S. Senator Roy Blunt for his efforts in moving this funding through Congress to provide assistance to Joplin and other communities that have suffered disasters.”
On November 18, 2011, Congress appropriated $300 million in CDBG funds to support long-term disaster recovery in the most impacted and distressed areas resulting from a major disaster in 2011. Concurrently, Congress gave HUD the authority to allocate up to an additional $100 million for the recovery efforts. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan exercised the agency’s full authority by targeting the maximum amount of CDBG funding allowed toward helping these most impacted state and local areas.
With approximately 30% of the City, including roughly 7,500 structures affected by the tornado, the financial assistance need is great. The assistance the community is receiving from HUD will go a long way to help recover from this great loss. Approximately $6M is budgeted for sustainable infrastructure needs, $5M for economic recovery, and the remaining funds will be used for a mixture of housing programs to assist in the recovery of the housing market.
Housing programs are intended to help citizens for rental and ownership needs as well as focusing on residents that are low to moderate income. The City continues to work with Wallace Bajjali, a firm from Sugarland, Texas that the City Council has contracted with as the master developer for Joplin, as well as numerous housing agencies and not-for-profit organizations to rebuild Joplin.
The City’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Initial Action Plan can be found on the City’s website at www.joplinmo.org/DR-CDBG-Plan .
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