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On November 14, the City of Detroit submitted a proposal for $57.6 million in additional flood relief funding that was awarded in March 2022 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The funding is being distributed under HUD’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) to 10 local governments and 13 state governments that received partial CDBG-DR funding following the disastrous 2021 flooding, including areas of Southeastern Michigan.
The city’s Housing and Revitalization Department will administer the funds supporting the goal of Housing and Protective Infrastructure in the hardest hit communities.
“What happens is that we have to go through a set of steps to actually apply,” said Nicole Wyse, chief operations officer at the Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department.
“It’s not like applying in a traditional sense where we’re in a competitive application, but we do have to submit for the money. That’s what we’ve been doing over the past couple of months with the $57 million. We submitted documentation to HUD, looking at their regulations on what type of activities will qualify for DR (Disaster Relief), propose activities and then we have to do public outreach.”
On November 3, HUD announced the allocation of $1.447 billion in CDBG-DR funds to help communities recover from disasters in 2021 and to support the development of comprehensive resilience to climate change.
The aid package is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to equitably improve disaster relief response and climate change crises. In the wake of the flooding disaster in June 2021, Detroit was designated as a one of the “most impacted and distressed qualifying disasters” by HUD.
A state of emergency was declared last summer as more than six inches of rain fell in Detroit and surrounding Wayne County, flooding streets and freeways, and overloading sewer systems. The storm caused power outages to an estimated 40,000 homes and businesses.
Detroit received an allocation of $57,591,000 and was required to use the funds specifically for “disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, economic revitalization, and mitigation, in the most impacted and distressed areas.”
Of the total HUD award, approximately $47 million has been allocated in the proposal, leaving $10 million to be used for “mitigation activity” to prevent future flooding.
To ensure consistency of the disaster impacts identified in the plan and that the plan and planning process were thorough and inclusive, the City of Detroit consulted with disaster-affected residents in the most impacted areas in Districts 4, 6 and 7, stakeholders like Jefferson East Inc., Midwest Council and Chadsey Condon, local governments like the City of Dearborn and the State of Michigan, and other affected parties in the surrounding geographic area.
The City of Detroit submitted the Draft Action Plan to HUD and it is under review. Wyes said, based on the timeline of past HUD funding, the city can expect to hear back in January 2023. Residents had an opportunity to provide valuable community feedback on the Plan from October 4 to November 4.
During the three public hearings held since October, residents have vocally opposed any plans that close the canals, especially those situated along private property along the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood.
The City had previously committed $2.4 million of non-HUD funding for a pilot project to install backflow prevention valves and sump pumps in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood and Aviation subdivision.
In June 2022, three options for reducing flooding were proposed by city authorities and the Flood Management Services Program (FPMSP), including an open approach with substantial floodwalls and closing the canal, levees and floodwalls outside (or within) the wave run up zone.
Other community concerns were echoed to HRD during the latest public hearings.
“We received a lot of responses,” said Wyse. “People who were outside of the targeted neighborhoods were not able to access funding. There were concerns about home repair needs that maybe were tied to the flooding. Another big one was households that weren’t necessarily over 80 percent of the area median income that may not be able to access the DR funding.”
Dan Austin, director of communications for the city of Detroit’s planning, housing and development, said in the coming months ahead, the city will continue to engage the community so that the funds are spent in the way that the community needs within the regulations.
Once approved by HUD, Detroit city council will need to accept the proposal and appropriate funds to hire staff, draft policies and procedures for an anticipated launch of early Fall 2023. Applications will then be expected to open for residents seeking relief funding for any damages incurred during the June 2021 flooding.
“Disaster recovery dollars are really recovery and that’s very different than response, which is like FEMA funding for that type of thing,” said Wyse.
“The regulations around what we can use the money for are very different. As residents are applying, we’re trying to make the process as transparent as possible to help separate those two things. We do hope to get the dollars as soon as possible because we know folks really need access to the funding, and begin notifying Detroiters.”
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