Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR)

A growing body of research demonstrates how the increasing severity and frequency of disasters exacerbates existing challenges of housing affordability and stability, especially for renters in disaster-affected states, counties, and cities. While the federal government plays an increasingly central role in recovery, pathways for long-term recovery of renters and affordable rental housing are understudied, leaving policymakers with limited tools for long-term planning. The Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grants are one of the most prominent sources of federal funding for post disaster recovery, supplementing assistance programs administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Small Business Administration (SBA) and other agencies. To date $96 billion dollars have been allocated through CDBG-DR starting from Hurricanes Andrew and Omar in 1992 through Hurricane Ida and other events in 2021. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) CDBG-DR funding is appropriated by Congress following major Presidentially declared disasters when Congress deemed other aid and resources were not enough to meet the needs of the impacted community. State or local CDBG-DR grantees develop action plans and aligned budgets to address unmet need in their communities. According to HUD, “housing assistance is typically the most immediate priority of state and local governments and is often the largest budgeted activity. The intent of housing recovery programs is to ensure those whose homes were impacted by the disaster can return to safe and adequate housing or relocate to suitable housing elsewhere.” To address the gap in understanding recovery outcomes for rental housing and assessing CDBG-DR effectiveness for this population, in summer 2022, HUD issued a NOFO (FR-6600-N-29A) to announce availability of funding for two research projects. The joint goal of the research is to “improve disaster recovery effectiveness for renter households by examining the disaster recovery outcomes of renter households and rental housing stock in places that received Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery grants (CDBG-DR).” Funding for these studies came from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260, approved December 27, 2020) which provided funding to HUD for research on disaster recovery to support the Department to evaluate the efficacy of its disaster recovery programs. This is aligned with HUD’s FY 2022-2026 Strategic Plan for ensuring everyone has an affordable, healthy place to live. The scope of the research will focus on the disaster recovery outcomes of renter households and rental housing stock in places awarded CDBG-DR grants, the contributing factors and mechanisms driving recovery outcomes for renter households, and opportunities to improve upon them. The findings of the research will provide recommendations to support Congress, HUD, and State and Local governments in mitigating the loss of affordable rental housing following disasters and facilitating faster and better recovery of renter households. Urban Institute was awarded a cooperative agreement to pursue one of the research studies made available through the NOFO. Research questions identified by HUD in the RFQ—and the corresponding data collection strategy proposed by The Urban Institute—are provided in Table A1. This supporting statement requests approval for qualitative research (interviews and focus groups) in three disaster affected communities to provide context and help identify potential additional variables of interest for local quantitative analysis of changes in rental housing changes in renter populations and understand the recovery initiatives and role of CDBG-DR requirements in influencing outcomes. The other data collection strategies are not subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act and are therefore not included as part of this request.

The latest form for Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) expires 2026-12-31 and can be found here.

Interviews – Federal, state, and local government

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Community and Social Services - Community and Regional Development