1. Cdbg-dr: an overview
Holly Smith

2. But first…
A little bit about me…

4. What is CDBG-DR and How Will it Benefit Sonoma County?
Cdbg-dr: an overview
What is CDBG-DR and How Will it Benefit Sonoma County?

5. Community development block grant - disaster recovery (CDBG-DR)
The CDBG-DR program helps States and local governments recover from Presidentially-declared disasters, especially in low-income areas.
CDBG-DR funding is appropriated by Congress as a special CDBG appropriation in response to a disaster. The statutory authority for CDBG-DR funding is via individual supplemental appropriations to address specific disasters.
CDBG can fund a broad range of recovery activities and help communities and neighborhoods that otherwise might not recover due to limited resources.

6. Funding hierarchy
To be eligible, projects and programs must demonstrate that they serve a need not being met by other funding sources.
CDBG-DR is considered “funding of last resort” and cannot duplicate prior funding sources (FEMA, SBA, insurance, charitable, etc.).

7. What is California getting?
The State of California will receive $212 million in CDBG-DR funds: $124,155,000 for unmet needs and $88,219,000 for mitigation.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is the Grantee/Administrator of the CDBG-DR funding. Grantees generally administer funding in one or a combination of the following ways:
Direct implementation model: Grantee implements program directly;
Partner model: Grantee provides funding to partners such as other agencies, sub recipients or contractors to implement; or
Method of distribution model: Grantee provides funding to Units of Local Government (UGLG) to carry out projects.

8. Cdbg-dr requirements Each CDBG-DR activity is required to:
Address a disaster-related impact in a Presidentially-declared area for the covered disaster;
Be a CDBG eligible activity; and
Meet a CDBG national objective.
What does all of this mean?

9. Cdbg-dr requirement #1
The activity must address a disaster-related impact in a Presidentially-declared area for the covered disaster.
Eligible areas are those that were impacted by the October 2017 wildfires in Northern California and the December 2017 wildfires in Southern California.
Counties include: Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Sonoma, Yuba, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Ventura
Zip Codes include: 93108, 94558, 95422, 95470, and 95901
At least 80% of the allocation must address unmet disaster needs within the HUD-identified “most impacted and distressed areas”, bolded above.

10. Cdbg-dr requirement #2 The activity must be a CDBG eligible activity.
Examples include but are not limited to:
Housing rehabilitation and repair – including owner-occupied and renter- occupied, single-family and multi-family, transitional, shelters, etc.;
Repair, replacement, or relocation of damaged infrastructure and public facilities; and
Loans and grants to businesses for economic revitalization.

11. Cdbg-dr requirement #3
The activity must meet a CDBG national objective:
Provide benefit to low- and moderate- income (LMI) persons;
Aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight; or
Meet a need having a particular urgency (referred to as urgent need).
The “overall benefit requirement” of CDBG requires that 70% of the funds benefit low to moderate-income (LMI) persons.

12. SONOMA COUNTY INCOME LIMITS

13. What does success look like to hud?
Direct Impact. All funded activities must clearly address an impact of the fires.
Unmet Needs Assessment. The State will be required to perform an unmet needs assessment and use data to demonstrate how the funded activities will address an impact from the fire.
Housing Focused. The State may propose an allocation of funds that includes unmet economic revitalization and infrastructure needs that are unrelated to unmet housing needs only after it has demonstrated in its needs assessment that there is no remaining unmet housing need or that the remaining unmet housing need will be addressed by other sources of funds.
Vulnerability Factors. HUD will require the State to describe how they will promote housing for vulnerable populations, including homeless, precariously housed, and special needs (elderly, disabled, etc.)

14. HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK?
The State must submit their Action Plan to HUD by December 18. It will include the State’s unmet needs assessment and a detailed description and budget of all proposed activities.
Before submitting the Action Plan, the State will be required to accept public comments for 30 days.
All proposed programs must be tied to the disaster data analysis performed as part of the unmet needs assessment.
The State will meet with local jurisdictions and stakeholders in the coming weeks to gather data and input.
The County is conducting its own unmet needs assessment to present to the State.

15. SONOMA COUNTY’S UNMET NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Currently collecting and analyzing data, leaning heavily on the FEMA and SBA data, since that is what HUD used in their awarding methodology.
We are most interested in data that magnifies issues that are specific to Sonoma County’s most vulnerable residents who were directly affected by the fires and are continuing to struggle with recovery.
So far, we know that renters in Sonoma County were disproportionately impacted and have limited means for recovering (low FEMA awards, no insurance, no access to SBA loans, lower incomes, homelessness and precariously housed issues, displacement due to fires, etc.). As a result, seriously impacted renters make up the vast majority of the population represented in HUD’s original methodology for awarding California $124 million in CDBG-DR funds.
Low SBA loan utilization rate among homeowners and small businesses

16. QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, AND FRUSTRATIONS
Holly Smith
(601)
“There are no greater treasures than the highest human qualities such as compassion, courage and hope. Not even tragic accident or disaster can destroy such treasures of the heart.” - Daisaku Ikeda