The Texas General Land Office (GLO) has approved over $12 million in federal grants to support infrastructure and housing recovery projects across Texas. The funds come from the Disaster Recovery Reallocation Program (DRRP) and target communities with ongoing unmet needs from federally declared disasters.

The DRRP is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through its Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. The program allows the state to reallocate unspent or de-obligated funds from past disaster grants. Eligible projects must relate to specific disaster events—such as the 2015 and 2016 floods—and meet federal criteria.

All projects must be completed within two years or less to comply with HUD’s expenditure and closeout deadlines.

Totaling over $12 million in grants, the selected projects, awards and a brief description of work are as follows:

  • Jacinto City in Harris County – $6 million from three grants to improve sewer lines under Lane Street, develop emergency communications infrastructure and upgrade portions of the wastewater treatment plant.
  • City of Newton in Newton County – Nearly $4 million from three grants to resurface and repair streets, improve Jackson and Magnolia streets and replace sewer lines.
  • City of Tomball in Harris County – $1.35 million in grant funds for improvement to the M118 drainage channel.
  • City of Brazoria in Brazoria County – $700,000 for a sewer line infrastructure project.

 

The DRRP supports recovery from disasters occurring between 2008 and 2019, including Hurricanes Ike and Dolly, Hurricane Harvey and multiple flood events. Although the state has identified about $140 million in reallocated funding, it received more than $1.4 billion worth of proposed projects—nearly ten times the available resources. Additional reallocations are expected as more unused funds become available.

Additional information—including applications, scoring criteria and detailed project descriptions—is available on DRRP’s dedicated disaster recovery website.

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