AUSTIN — Today Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush is encouraging communities impacted by the 2016 flooding events to submit applications for $19 million in reallocated Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds. Applications for acquisition and/or demolition of real property along with flood and drainage improvements will be considered. Entities eligible to compete for project funds will be the five counties designated "most impacted" by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which are Brazoria, Fort Bend, Harris, Montgomery, and Newton counties. The total allocation amount for the 2016 flooding events is $239 million.

Application criteria:

• The minimum application amount is $5,000,000 and the maximum application amount is $19 million.
• Each application may contain only one project.
• Each applicant may submit a total of two applications. Depending on demand, no applicant will be awarded a subsequent application until all eligible applicants have been awarded at least once.
• Each project must identify how activities will contribute to long-term recovery and restoration of housing in the most impacted and distressed areas.
• If there are more funds available than eligible applications received, the GLO may request a waiver from HUD and amend the state action plan to utilize funds based on the response.
• All applications must be submitted by September 18, 2019, at 5 p.m.
• Application found at https://recovery.texas.gov/local-government/programs/2016-grant-application/index.html.

About GLO Community Development and Revitalization (CDR)
In addition to short-term housing in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Texas General Land Office administers Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) allocations on behalf of the state of Texas. More than $9 billion has been released for recovery following Hurricanes Rita, Dolly, and Ike, the 2011 wildfires, the 2015 and 2016 floods and Hurricane Harvey. These grants can be used for a wide variety of activities including housing redevelopment, infrastructure repair and long-term planning. An additional $4.3 billion in mitigation funds is pending the release of official guidance from HUD. For more information, please visit recovery.texas.gov.