The National Disaster Resilience Competition

The National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC) is a HUD funding program that reflects Congress's response to the natural disasters of 2011-2013, starting with Hurricane Sandy. It is funded out of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, and is called CDBG-DR, or CDBG-Disaster Recovery. Toward the end of this year, HUD will allocate $1 billion in CDBG-DR to successful NDRC applicants. This will have a huge impact on disaster recovery efforts across the country, with an aim of mitigating the impacts of future natural disasters. Here are the basics about NDRC.

• The application consists of two phases. Phase I applications, submitted earlier this year, framed unmet recovery needs and described an overall approach to address them. HUD invited Phase I applicants to submit a Phase II application (due Oct. 27th) that proposes specific projects to receive CDBG-DR funds.

• All states with counties that experienced a Presidentially Declared Major Disaster in 2011, 2012 or 2013 were eligible to submit a Phase I application.

• CDBG-DR eligible projects include housing, infrastructure, community facilities and watershed restoration. At least half of the funds must benefit Low and Moderate Income Households, as defined by HUD.

• The program seeks to fund proposals that further "resilience", meaning that the community will resist and rapidly recover from disasters with minimal outside assistance.

• The NDRC also prioritizes projects that fully engage and inform community stakeholders, address the specific needs of vulnerable populations, and leverage investments from the philanthropic community.

Housing Tools has experience developing applications for this competition, so please contact me if you have any questions.