Press Releases

Today Rep. Cartwright announced that nearly $10 million has been awarded to Luzerne County by way of U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The funding is to help local communities recover from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, which occurred.  These grants, part of $514 million allocated among nine states nationwide, are provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program to support long-term disaster recovery efforts in areas with the greatest extent of unmet need.

"With the impact of recent natural disasters on our region, grants such as this will help in rebuilding our local businesses as well as assist in dealing with housing and infrastructure needs," said Cartwright. “This funding is a huge shot in the arm for Luzerne County, and I look forward to working on making sure that Northeastern Pennsylvania remains in the forefront of securing federal grants.”

HUD is allocating $29,986,000 to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to support long-term recovery activities in the hardest-hit areas following Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.  The funding announced today supplements more than $49 million HUD allocated throughout Pennsylvania in January 2012. 

“In the past two years, Mother Nature really dealt a blow to these communities and we must continue to support them as they rebuild,” said Chris Donovan, HUD Secretary.  “For its part, HUD is working closely with our state and local partners to build upon the work they’ve done to restore their housing, infrastructure and businesses.”

The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, signed into law by President Obama on January 29^th, included $16 billion in CDBG-Disaster Recovery funding.  Eight days later, HUD announced a first round of aid totaling $5.4 billion to five states and the City of New York impacted by Hurricane Sandy.  HUD will announce additional allocations throughout the year based upon the level of remaining needs to help other states and local communities impacted by natural disasters in 2011-2013.