Today the Texas General Land Office (GLO) posted Amendment 2 of the Mitigation State Action Plan for $4.3 billion in Community Development Block Grants for Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) for a federally required 30-day public comment period. This amendment allows additional individuals with a remaining need for housing assistance to be served in Cameron, Chambers, Harris, Hidalgo, Jefferson, Jim Wells, Liberty, Montgomery, Orange, San Jacinto, and Willacy counties.
The amendment includes the following changes:
- Housing Oversubscription Supplemental: Expanded eligible participants to include waitlisted eligible Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) applicants from the 2018 South Texas Floods HAP and 2019 Disasters (Lower Rio Grande Flooding and Tropical Storm Imelda) HAP.
- Resilient Home Program: Expanded eligible participants to include waitlisted eligible Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) applicants from the 2018 South Texas Floods HAP and 2019 Disasters (Lower Rio Grande Flooding and Tropical Storm Imelda) HAP.
The GLO’s Homeowner Assistance Program has successfully reached the hardest hit, low and moderate income, vulnerable, and historically hard-to-reach families and individuals as defined by the Fair Housing Act and required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Of all approved applicants, nearly 90 percent identify as Black or Hispanic, and 89 percent of homeowners are considered low-to-moderate income with 63 percent of applicants making less than 30 percent of the area median income.
The innovative Resilient Home Program (RHP) reconstructs owner-occupied single-family homes damaged by Hurricane Harvey with additional resiliency and mitigation standards. Eligible participants will be drawn from the GLO's existing waitlisted eligible Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) applicants. This program also serves as a showcase for more resilient residential construction practices and provide the opportunity to promote these practices throughout the residential construction industry on a scale larger than previously attempted. RHP offers four enhanced construction methods: tilt-wall, steel-frame, structural composite lumber, and enhanced wood-frame construction. For more information, please visit recovery.texas.gov/rhp.
The amendment is available for review at recovery.texas.gov/public-notice s. All comments should be submitted to cdr@recovery.texas.gov by 5:00 p.m. on May 30, 2023, to be considered. Per federal requirements, the GLO must respond to public comments before the amendment can be sent to HUD for final approval
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