Durbin Announces $127 Million in CDBG Funding for Disaster Recovery in Illinois
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will be releasing $127,270,128 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for disaster recovery in Illinois. This is the remaining CDBG funding for relief efforts following the flooding along the Mississippi River in June 2008 bringing the total amount of CDBG funding for disaster recovery to $186.5 million for Illinois.
“Nearly a year has passed since residents of Western Illinois braced for record flooding along the Mississippi River,” said Durbin. “Today’s funding is welcome news for dozens of Illinoisans that still have not fully recovered from the damage. Communities, families and businesses hit hard by the devastating floods will now have more of the help they need to repair the damage and continue rebuilding their lives.”
This funding is part of a $3.9 billion nationwide announcement of funding for CDBGs. In September, Congress appropriated more than $6 billion in supplemental funding for “necessary expenses related to disaster relief, long-term recovery, and restoration of infrastructure, housing and economic revitalization in areas affected by hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters occurring during 2008.” On November 26, HUD allocated $2.4 billion in funding for recovery efforts through the CDBG program, including nearly $60 million for Illinois.
Last year, Durbin joined a bipartisan coalition of senators in requesting relief for communities across the country that experienced natural disasters this summer, including those affected by flooding in Illinois and the Midwest. These senators requested additional resources for CDBGs through HUD and other programs in various federal agencies so they could help communities rebuild and recover.
Since 1974, HUD's CDBG program has allocated approximately $120 billion to state and local governments to target their own community development priorities. The program is one of HUD's oldest and most flexible programs. The rehabilitation of affordable housing and construction of public facilities and improvements have traditionally been the largest uses of the grants, although the program is also an important catalyst for job growth and business opportunities.