About this Event
In the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved Puerto Rico’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Action Plan, which included the Puerto Rico By Design (“Program”), an innovative $700 million design competition program formed to create large-scale community driven infrastructure to address future climate uncertainties. The Program follows an inclusive and collaborative model developed through past HUD-funded initiatives as the Rebuild by Design Hurricane Sandy Competition and the National Disaster Resilience Competition but tailored to the unique risk and opportunity parameters of the archipelago of Puerto Rico. The goal of the Program is to seek innovative, transformative, high-impact, large-scale projects that will incorporate resilience and sustainability measures resulting in economic, social and environmental benefits across multiple sectors.
The currently proposed Draft Amendment 5 of the CDBG-DR Action Plan, published for public comment on September 10, 2020, by the PR Department of Housing and the CDBG-DR Program, is proposing the elimination of the Puerto Rico by Design Program. If you are concerned about the proposed elimination of the Program through this amendment, there is a public comment period open now until Friday, October 9, 2020, in which you can express your opinion about such proposal online.
The Rebuild by Design model changed the way the federal government assists local communities to respond, recover and mitigate hazards from disasters. Join us for a vital, participatory conversation with Amy Chester who lead the Rebuild by Design Hurricane Sandy Competition implementing large-scale infrastructure projects to address holistically the physical and social vulnerabilities exposed by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast United States. Amy Chester will talk about: how the competition created a network of 10 design teams consisting of over 200 individuals and more than 700 government agencies and community organizations who co-created the proposals (those visions were awarded $930 million from HUD and each will break ground within a year); how the Rebuild by Design model now works with cities around the world to use the same collaborative process to address issues of climate change; and the opportunities and tangible benefits of keeping the Puerto Rico By Design Program in the CDBG-DR Action Plan to develop sound, design-driven grassroots solutions which will result in thriving communities throughout our archipelago.
Join us for a 60-minute session, split between a presentation discussion and live Q&A from virtual attendees.
RSVP here.