DCA Accepts Public Comment on Plan for Additional $149.2 Million in Federal Funds for Hurricane Ida Recovery

• Posted on: 07/12/2023

State Proposes to Use Additional Federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Funds to Further Address Housing and Infrastructure Projects

TRENTON, NJ – The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) today posted an amendment to the Hurricane Ida Action Plan that details how the State plans to spend an additional $149,229,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds to continue helping households and communities that were impacted by Hurricane Ida.

From today through August 11, 2023, the public can submit comment on the Ida Action Plan amendment, which proposes to modify existing Ida recovery programs and budgets and add new programs. DCA intends to incorporate feedback received during the public comment period into the amendment, which must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for approval.

“The State is making progress in recovering from Hurricane Ida, but much work remains to be done. Therefore, we greatly appreciate the additional disaster recovery funds coming from our federal government partners,” said Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, who serves as Commissioner of DCA, which is the state agency responsible for administering the federal CDBG-DR funds. “More funding will certainly allow us to assist more people than we otherwise would have. We look forward to helping families and communities rebuild with resiliency in mind so they are better prepared for future storms.”   

The $149.2 million the State is receiving is on top of the $228.34 million that New Jersey was initially awarded in May 2022. The State’s total CDBG-DR allocation for Hurricane Ida assistance programs now stands at $377.57 million.

The Hurricane Ida Action Plan for the initial $228.34 million, which was approved by HUD in late December 2022, includes programs to restore Ida-damaged homes, provide rental assistance to people impacted by Hurricane Ida, buy out homes in communities vulnerable to repetitive flooding, and finance resilient infrastructure projects throughout New Jersey to protect the state from future storms. At least 70 percent of these funds will benefit low- to moderate-income persons or households.

For the $149.2 million in additional CDBG-DR funding, the State is proposing to add two new programs:

• The Resilient Multifamily Housing Program will fund the resilient rehabilitation of Ida-damaged rental units in multifamily affordable housing properties that are financed by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA). Many of these affordable rental units are older and were built without regard for flood risk and climate change. This program will fund rehab and resiliency projects in existing NJHMFA multifamily units located within the counties that HUD and the State identified as most impacted and distressed by Hurricane Ida. Those counties are Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union, and Warren.
• The Ivy Hill Storm Water Mitigation Program will address the currently undersized stormwater culverts and areas of poor drainage and water infiltration in the Ivy Hill neighborhood of Newark. The neighborhood, which is predominantly low- to moderate-income, has a history of severe repetitive flooding. The CDBG-DR funding would go toward helping the City of Newark mitigate these issues.

Also, in an effort to streamline federal reporting requirements across several disaster recovery funding streams, the State is proposing budget modifications, which include:

• Moving funding from the FEMA Non-Federal Match program, which helps State and local governmental entities fund the non-federal cost share of disaster recovery projects, to the Homeowner Assistance and Recovery Program (HARP), which provides grants to eligible homeowners for work necessary to restore their Ida-damaged homes. The reallocation of funds is necessary in order to ensure the State can assist all eligible low- to moderate-income households that applied to HARP.
• Moving funding from the Statewide Housing Mitigation Tool, which assesses the housing stock in disaster-impacted and at-risk areas, and Resilient NJ, which funds units of local governments, regional teams, and consultant teams to support resilience planning, to the Housing Counseling and Legal Services Program, which provides Ida-impacted households with a wide range of supportive services and legal consultation. Both the Resilient NJ program and the Statewide Housing and Mitigation Tool will continue to be funded, but with CDBG-DR funding that remains from Superstorm Sandy recovery.
• Creating the HARP Rental Assistance-Temporary Relocation public services budget line item. This will help eligible Ida-impacted homeowners in the HARP program with rental assistance should they need to temporarily relocate from their home due to a rehabilitation project.  
• Creating a budget line item to fund infrastructure in support of housing within the Smart Move Program, which subsidizes the new development of quality, energy-efficient, resilient, and affordable housing in lower flood risk areas within or near disaster-impacted communities that are participating in Blue Acres or other voluntary buyout programs. The program aims to provide safe housing for relocating residents so they may stay in or near their communities after selling their high flood risk properties. The State is also proposing amendments to the program requirements.

The Hurricane Ida Action Plan Amendment #4 is available in English and Spanish at https://www.nj.gov/dca/ddrm/ and can be requested by email at DisasterRecoveryandMitigation@dca.nj.gov or by contacting DCA’s Division of Disaster Recovery and Mitigation Constituent Services at (609) 292-3750. To obtain a copy in a language other than English or Spanish, people can contact Sylvia Johnston, the language access plan (LAP) coordinator, at Sylvia.Johnston@dca.nj.gov. For hearing-impaired users, text telephone service is available at (TTY/TDD) 1-800-852-7899.

People can submit public comments to the proposed amendment via email or regular mail. More information is available at https://www.nj.gov/dca/ddrm/home/idaapa4.shtml.  

In addition to disaster recovery and mitigation, DCA offers a wide range of programs and services, including local government management and finance, affordable housing production, fire safety, building safety, community planning and development, historic preservation, and information privacy.

For more information about DCA, visit https://nj.gov/dca/ or follow the Department on social media: