The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a package of 27 regulatory and administrative waivers aimed at helping communities accelerate their recovery from Hurricane Ida.
To spur new housing construction, the federal agency said the moves include suspending normal rules to enable Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program grantees to replace affordable housing units that were lost as a result of the hurricane and flooding.
HUD will suspend a cap limiting CDBG expenditures for public services to 15%, and it will temporarily allow CDBG grantees to pay for additional support services for individuals and families affected by the hurricanes. Services could include, but not be limited to, the provision of food, emergency shelter, case management and related services to help residents in declared-disaster areas until long-term recovery resources become available.
More than a week after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana, large parts of the region remained without power as property owners and residents worked to recover from the deadly storm.
New Orleans officials said they are continuing to perform wellness checks at senior apartment developments. The move comes after several residents have died in senior communities, including three in buildings operated by Christopher Homes, the housing agency of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, according to local news reports. The organization has released a statement.
Overall, the city reported five post-storm fatalities in senior-living sites and evacuating eight facilities that were deemed unfit for ongoing occupancy.Many multifamily housing operators continue to assess the damages to their properties after Hurricane made landfall in Louisiana on Aug. 29.
Fortunately, The Domain Cos. team is well, and its properties made it through the hurricane in pretty good shape, with some wind and tree damage, according to co-CEO Matt Schwartz. The firm has about a dozen developments in the Gulf Coast, mostly in New Orleans, ranging from 100% affordable to mixed-income to luxury high-rise developments.
“It’s important whether in the Gulf Coast or other areas to have disaster preparedness plans and being able to mobilize and put that into place,” Schwartz says. “We not only have that in New Orleans, but we have it in New York and elsewhere.”
He stressed the importance of regularly updating and revising the plans.
Following a hurricane or another event, the Domain team will hold a debriefing to discuss what it would do different or change in the plan. “It’s always a work in progress,” Schwartz says. “It’s constantly evolving.”
Aaron Swain, president of property management and operations for Columbia Residential, says the firm’s New Orleans communities had some tree damage and roof shingles blown off, but no major flooding.
“No residents were displaced due to water infiltration or major storm damage,” he says. “Many residents also did evacuate as recommended by the city of New Orleans.”
With the city seeing hot temperatures, Swain says that power had been restored for almost all of the properties, except one, as of Sept. 7. “There are FEMA hotels established where some residents were able to shelter. There were food trucks on site feeding families over last weekend,” he says. “There also are citywide cooling centers established, and fire stations in the area also had charging and feeding stations set up for those without power.”
Ida continued its wrath as it moved northeast across the U.S., with disastrous flooding and tornadoes from Maryland to New England. According to news reports, four people were found dead and hundreds displaced after floodwaters surged through the Oakwood Plaza apartment community in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
