HUDRD Wildfire Recovery and Resilience FAQ 06-07-2022.pdf

FAQs for Wildfire Recovery and Resilience (FR-6600-N-29B)

Question: Is there a list of CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT grant recipients available for us to determine whether we have community partners where the grants were awarded?

Answer: Yes, researchers can view details about the CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT recipients by disaster allocation on the Active Disaster Grants and Grantee Contact Information subpage at https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/cdbg-dr/cdbg-dr-grantee-contact-information/#view-all-disasters

This list includes the state and local government grantees that received a grant award from HUD. The website also includes the grantee’s website which may include the grantee’s established partnerships, either with other governmental agencies or non-profits (often referred to as subrecipients). Researchers will need to visit each grantee’s CDBG-DR or CDBG-MIT website to obtain this information or contact the grantees directly. HUD requires each grantee to maintain a public disaster recovery website where grantees post their Action Plans, performance reports, and other important documents. The Action Plan and performance reports list programs or activities that the grantee has undertaken and can include references to any further partnerships the grantee has made in the program delivery of the grant.

Lastly, if a researcher would like to know where a grantee will be spending their funds, grantees are required to spend funds in areas that are “most impacted and distressed” (“MID”). HUD identifies MID areas that are eligible for CDBG-DR or CDBG-MIT funds in the applicable Federal Register notices and grantees can define their own MID areas that received a presidential major disaster declaration. However, grantees must use 80 percent of their allocation to address unmet disaster recovery needs or to support mitigation activities in the HUD-identified MID areas and then can allocate the remaining 20 percent to grantee-identified MID areas. These areas can be found in the grantee’s Action Plan, which is posted on each grantee’s disaster recovery website.

Note:

As of this writing the Grantee Contact List does not include additional CDBG-DR funding that was allocated to some of the 2020 and 2021 grantees. A list of these grantees is in the 2020 allocation Federal Register Notice at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-02-03/pdf/2022-02209.pdf , and the 2020 and 2021 allocation Federal Register Notice at https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/CPD/documents/CDBG-DR/87_FR_31636.pdf.

Question: Does HUD prefer proposals where applicants already have preexisting regional partners or is it possible to establish those relationships during the grant period?

Answer: Proposals will be evaluated according to the Rating Factors described in Section V.A. of the Notice of Funding Opportunity. The Rating Factors do not require preexisting regional partners.

Question: Is wildfire smoke effect a viable topic for this research grant program?

Answer: Possibly. To be funded under the Wildfire Recovery and Resilience NOFO (FR-6600-N-29B), a study on wildfire smoke effects would need to use a community studies method to examine positive, negative, and neutral effects of disaster assistance on the resilience to wildfire of low- and moderate-income persons and communities. Further, it requires a focus on communities in the western region (as defined by the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy) and must include communities that received CDBG-DR or CDBG-MIT funds. Please read the evaluation factors described in the NOFO carefully to understand how proposals will be evaluated.

Question: Does this program provide grants to compensate for losses from wildfires?

Answer: No. This program funds research studies.

Question: Does this program provide grants to build fire-resistant homes?

Answer: No. This program funds research studies.