The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the winners of the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC). HUD will allocate $176 million to New York City, $35.8 million to New York State, $15 million for New Jersey, and over $54 million for Connecticut. Rebuild by Design is excited to congratulate these grantees as they continue working towards improving resilience in the Sandy-affected region.

HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition was based on the Rebuild by Design model, using competition and design-driven techniques to drive innovation in government funding.

Below are the tri-state region’s awards:

New York City– $176,000,000 to support the development of the next phase of the East Side Costal Resilience Project, originally developed as part of the Rebuild by Design competition, which will construct a coastal protection system that will enhance the connection between neighborhoods, add green spaces and seating areas, dog parks, and retail areas. More information from the NYTimes.

New York State– $35,800,000 to support public housing resiliency pilots throughout the State. The State of New York will provide funding to Public Housing Authorities to implement site-specific resiliency recommendations based on the Enterprise Community Partners’ Ready to Respond Toolkit. This will enable the State to repair damage from recent disasters like Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene and pilot new and innovative approaches to build resilience in low-income multifamily properties.

New Jersey– $15,000,000 to support the creation of a Regional Resiliency Planning Grant Program with will help regions and communities that experience significant flooding to undergo a comprehensive planning process to identify and address vulnerabilities due to increased flooding risk. The State will also work with university partners to develop a toolkit of best practices for communities to assess their flooding risks and develop resilience building codes and plans.

Connecticut– $54,277,359 to support a pilot program in Bridgeport that is part of the State’s broader Connecticut Connections Coastal Resilience Plan. The Coastal Resilience Plan is focused on reconnecting and protecting economically-isolated coastal neighborhoods through investments in streets that protect against flooding while strengthening their connectivity to existing transportation nodes.

Other winners include the of States of California, Iowa, Louisiana, Tennesssee, Virginia; Shelby County, TN; New Orleans, LA; Minot, ND; and Springfield, MA.

NDRC was a two-phased competition process, led by HUD, to award $1 billion in federal funding to eligible communities across the U.S. for disaster recovery and long-term community resilience. The Rockefeller Foundation provided targeted technical assistance to eligible states and communities and supported a stakeholder-driven process, informed by the best available data, to identify recovery needs and innovative solutions.

The strategic partnership between the Rockefeller Foundation and HUD drew on the successful strategies of the Rebuild by Design competition, where the Foundation provided lead support for administration of the competition and community engagement.

Congratulates to all the winners!
Read HUD’s official press release.