Hawai‘i County Set To Receive $30.6 Million In New Disaster Relief Funding For 2018 Natural Disasters
New Funding Comes After Schatz Called On HUD To Review Funding Calculations, Ensure Hawai‘i Receives Fair Share Of Federal Recovery Dollars; To Date, Hawai‘i Has Received More Than Half A Billion Dollars In Relief Funding for 2018 Natural Disasters
HONOLULU – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced that Hawai‘i County will receive $30.6 million in new federal disaster relief funding. The $23.7 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding will help the county to safely rebuild impacted communities, especially in low- and moderate-income areas, and provide resources to small businesses to help them recover and thrive. This new funding comes after U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, urged HUD to recognize the unique response and recovery challenges posed by the eruption and called for a review and increased funding for Hawai‘i County.
“We haven’t fully recovered from the natural disasters in 2018 yet, so this new funding will give Hawai‘i County more resources to continue working with residents on how to best rebuild,” said Senator Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “As we continue to recover, I will keep fighting for more federal resources at every opportunity.”
The county will also receive $6.8 million in a new funding to improve community resilience and mitigate the negative impacts of future disasters. The funding can be used to invest in measures that will prevent home flooding or harden infrastructure.
To date, Hawai‘i has received more than a half a billion dollars in federal relief funding to help the state recover from the 2018 natural disasters.
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