The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $9.6 million Tuesday to help the U.S. Virgin Islands rebuild from Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
The grant awarded Tuesday is provided through the Public Housing Capital Fund, which provides funds annually to Public Housing Agencies for the development, financing, and modernization of public housing developments and for management improvements.
The funds may not be used for improvements, direct social services, cost funded by other HUD programs or ineligible activities as determined by HUD on a case-by-case basis. They are allocated to the V.I. Housing Authority, according to HUD’s website.
“This crucial funding will help the Virgin Islands to address disaster-related deficiencies in housing, public services, and infrastructure, as determined by local officials with citizen input,” Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) said in a statement announcing the grant. She said it is a substantial increase due to the hurricanes.
These are annual funds, separate from the $1.6 billion HUD has set aside for the USVI. Congress approved the money as part of a $300 billion dollar spending bill – the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, approved in February – which included $83 billion for hurricane and wildfire disaster recovery for Texas, Florida, California, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. That funding will be spent in a series of grants through the V.I. government, after Gov. Kenneth Mapp submits an action plan and the plan is approved. That funding will be through Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Relief while Tuesday’s award was through HUD’s Public Housing Capital Fund.
Plaskett announced two other federal grants Tuesday.
– $400,000 in funding support for the Junior State of America for V.I. students.
“Through this program, four students from the Virgin Islands will attend a three-week summer school program on the campuses of Georgetown, Princeton, or Stanford, where they develop reading, writing, leadership, and speaking skills. Funding also supports a one-week academic preparation and community project program for 65 students in the insular areas and promotes political education as well as development of local JSA chapters in the island,” Plaskett said.
– The other is a $567,000 grant from the Office of Insular Affairs Technical Assistance Program to the V.I. Finance Department’s Readiness Assistance Program. That program helps assess compliance and helps the territory meet the requirements in preparation for an external audit. The goal is to ensure a painless, smooth audit process in which the passing is assured, according to Plaskett’s office.
Under the grant, the V.I. government will be able to meet compliance requirements on its own timelines, rather than scrambling in the throes of an audit remediation process, the news release said.