The NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) submitted comments on California’s draft State Action Plan for Disaster Recovery. The plan describes how the state intends to spend $124 million in Community Disaster Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding for recovery efforts related to the October 2017 wildfires in Northern California and the December 2017 wildfires, mudflows, and debris flows in Southern California. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) allocated most of the money to housing recovery, including $66 million for the construction or rehabilitation of multifamily housing. The DHRC proposes changes to improve long-term housing affordability and to ensure housing access to all populations.
Some of the DHRC’s specific recommendations include ensuring all affordable housing is replaced on a one-for-one basis, extending the proposed affordability restrictions to 50 years, providing deeper low-income targeting for new housing, and complying with all Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) obligations. These disasters impacted many rural, farmworker, and immigrant communities, and the DHRC urges the state to ensure these populations receive recovery benefits.
Read the DHRC’s comments at: https://bit.ly/2QR2VNY