New York State Homes and Community Renewal Releases Hurricane Ida...

New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) announced a proposed amendment to its Hurricane Ida Action Plan, which was created as part of its $68 million Hurricane Ida Recovery and Resiliency initiative to help households and communities recover from the 2021 storm. The public can submit comments regarding the proposal via webform, by emailing [email protected], or through mail addressed to New York State Homes and Community Renewal, Office of Resilient Homes and Communities, ATTN: Public Comments, 641 Lexington Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10022 by March 13th at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

The amendment proposes to expand the initiative's Homeowner Repair & Reimbursement program to include reimbursing eligible applicants who received certain low-interest loans following Ida.

In addition, the amendment updates eligibility requirements in the homeowner program to ensure compliance with federal requirements and focus assistance on households with the greatest need. Because federal requirements require 70 percent of grant funds to support households earning up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income, and because high-income households are considered more likely to recover from the impacts of Ida without excessive hardship, the program is limiting eligibility to those with incomes at or below 160 percent of the Area Median Income.

The proposed amendment also reallocates $16 million funding from the homeowner and renter programs to the Resilient Infrastructure through Support and Capital program. This program will be open to local government, non-for-profits, public schools and universities, for upgrading public facilities and infrastructure to be more resilient against future flooding disasters. Applications will open this month and be accepted through mid-April.

A full version of the proposed amendment is available here.

The Hurricane Ida Recovery and Resiliency initiative is administered by HCR's Office of Resilient Homes and Communities. The initiative complements New York's efforts to mitigate climate change by achieving economy-wide carbon-neutrality by 2050. In addition to Hurricane Ida, HCR has invested in recovery and resiliency efforts for Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene, programs that assist homeowners in making resiliency improvements and repair their homes following certain storms, and providing funding for clean energy projects in affordable housing, among other initiatives.