In November, the City received its second round of Sandy money, $1.44 billion, through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). The new money means the City now has approximately $3.2 billion to address Sandy related issues. With the new funds in hand, the City has decided to rework some its plans.
In May, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the first $1.77 billion would be cut into five various segments (housing, business, infrastructure, resilience, and administration/ planning).
Not much of that money had actually been spent by the time the City got its most recent tranche, so the City is now seeking to reallocate many millions of dollars, though the five segments remain the same. Housing gets more money on the new plan.
Business (economic development and grant programs) gets less money and on a percentage basis receives considerably less.
In the previous scenario, $648 million dollars was set aside for housing programs including $306 million for Build It Back and its (1-4 family program); another $215 million was for Build It Back and its multi-family program. $19 million was for rental assistance and $108 million was set aside for public housing.
The City now plans to more than triple the amount set aside for Build It Back’s 1-4 family program.
Under an amendment in its Action Plan, the City is seeking to earmark an additional $716 million to the program.
If approved, the total for this part of the program would be just north of $1 billion.
Although the new money is a considerable boost to the program, Director Kathryn Mallon has said Build It Back would need a total closer to $2 billion to satisfy the needs of all registrants in the 1-4 family category.
With the shift in monies, the total expenditure on housing will represent more than half of the Sandy relief money received by the City. The amendment in the City plan calls for a total of almost $1.7 billion for housing.
The business “bucket” as city officials often call the segments is a little less full in the new plan. Originally, the City had set aside $293 million of its first $1.7 billion.
The business program included loans and grants, the Game Changer competition, and business resilience incentives.
Its allotment represented more than 15 percent of the first tranche of monies.
Now, the business program has been trimmed by $27 million dollars. With a total of $266 million out of the $3.2 billion, the business program is reduced to roughly 8 percent of the overall CDBG plan.
As for the other segments, the new plan divides the money thusly: $855 million for infrastructure and “other city services” such as demolition, code enforcement, and public services; Resilience, which includes coastal protection and a residential building mitigation program will get $234 million of the $3.2 billion, and
Citywide Administration and Planning will get approximately $170 million.
There is a public comment period for these proposed amendments.
The deadline is January 25th. Comments can be made online (nyc.gov/cdbg) or in person at a public meeting at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 333 Beach 90th Street on January 15th, from 7-9 p.m
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