The U.S. Virgin Islands Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Action Plan proposes a portfolio of programs to address unmet housing, public service, infrastructure, and economic needs for allocations of CDBG-DR funds, consistent with HUD guidance, in a ratio that reflects the overall ratio of unmet needs.

 

To address these unmet needs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded $1,863,742,000 of CDBG-DR funds to the U.S. Virgin Islands. CDBG-DR funds are intended by HUD to address unmet needs in housing, infrastructure, and economic revitalization from the 2017 hurricanes (Hurricanes Irma and Maria), as well as mitigation activities to protect the Territory from the damage of future events.

 

Unless extended, all CDBG-DR funds must be expended within six years of a signed grant agreement between HUD and the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority, the CDBG-DR grantee. The Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and VIHFA have collaborated with community, nonprofit, and business leaders throughout the Territory and leveraged the expertise of its agencies to design these programs. In accordance with HUD’s requirement that 70% of all program funds be used primarily to benefit low- and moderate-income (LMI) individuals, these programs will address the needs of the Territory’s most vulnerable and hardest-hit residents as effectively as possible.