You are not alone if you haven’t been thinking of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a disaster recovery agency. But rest assured, HUD is very involved in both disaster recovery and promoting resilient communities. From Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to Hurricane Joaquin in 2015, HUD received more than $40 billion in supplemental disaster recovery funding. Before Hurricane Sandy, HUD was unnoticed in the disaster recovery space and awarded these funds to communities by formula without weighing in as much on how they should be spent. After Hurricane Sandy, HUD had the single largest appropriation from Congress, and with President Obama’s direction, the Department set about making the most of its role shepherding the recovery. Read more.
CPD Leadership: Tennille Smith Parker Director of the Disaster Recovery and Special Issues Division Office of Community Planning and Development, HUD Ms. Parker is the director of the Disaster Recovery and Special Issues Division in the Office of Block Grant Assistance. In this capacity, she manages the $46 billion portfolio of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds awarded to State and local governments. She began her career in housing and community development at HUD in 1998 and later went to work for the city of Falls Church, Virginia. In that position, Ms. Parker was responsible for the development and implementation of affordable housing products and programs, negotiating the inclusion of affordable housing in mixed-use projects, administering the city’s CDBG and HOME programs, and conducting outreach activities with affordable housing organizations and developers. Read more.
CPD Leadership: Donna Roachford CPD Representative Office of Community Planning and Development, HUD Donna Roachford is a CPD specialist for HUD in Washington, DC; she joined HUD as a Presidential Management Fellow in 2001. Before coming to headquarters in 2006, she worked in the Atlanta Regional Office as a CPD representative in the Office of Community Planning and Development supporting the Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs, the Office of Administration as a management analyst, and the Office of Human Resource Management as an employee and labor relations specialist. During her tenure as a CPD representative, Ms. Roachford volunteered to go on a mission assignment with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to represent HUD and assist citizens afflicted by Hurricanes Charlie, Jeannie, and Frances that struck the State of Florida in 2004, and later to the States of Louisiana and Mississippi when Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma struck in 2005. After the hurricanes in 2005, HUD created the Disaster Recovery and Special Issues Division in the Office of Block Grant Assistance, and Ms. Roachford was among the first five staff hired to support the CDBG-DR effort. Read more.
Jessie representing NDRC Phase 1 team for the Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service for Disaster Assistance, presented by HUD Secretary Julián Castro and HUD Deputy Secretary Nani Coloretti.
Deputy Director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance Office of Community Planning and Development, HUD
Ms. Kome has been deputy director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance since 2009. This office sets policy for the $3 billion annual budget for CDBG and related programs, including CDBG disaster recovery grants. In her more than 25 years at HUD, Ms. Kome has been an innovator in policy design for national community development programs and a strong advocate for transparent information technology to report on and analyze such programs.
Most recently, she managed the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC) from program framework to ultimate award decisions. From late 2001 through 2009, Ms. Kome held three different HUD positions from which she helped design, launch, and oversee disaster recovery programs and teams, including those in New York after 9/11 and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Read more.
Homelessness Disaster Recovery Expert: David Canavan Technical Assistance (TA) Provider Special Needs Assistance Programs (SNAPS), HUD David Canavan has worked with HUD as a technical assistance (TA) provider since 2002, serving many Continuums of Care (CoCs). Mr. Canavan leads disaster TA for the SNAPS Office at HUD and has responded to more than 20 presidentially declared disasters in recent years.
As a HUD-funded TA provider, he has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He has led teams of TA providers in the field responding to Superstorm Sandy by assisting tornado-impacted communities and supporting disease containment. Read more.
After Hurricane Sandy, HUD launched the Rebuild by Design competition in the summer of 2013. It was an innovative design competition to solicit ideas to improve the physical, ecological, economic, and social resilience of the region affected by Sandy. Rebuild by Design began as a multistage design competition, funded via partnerships with philanthropic institutions, and it attracted submissions from 148 multidisciplinary teams from more than 15 countries. Ultimately, 10 diverse interdisciplinary design teams were chosen to collaborate with local governments, civic groups, and the public to create groundbreaking proposals that addressed the physical and social vulnerabilities that Hurricane Sandy exposed. The projects that emerged from the competition are unique for their forward-looking approach to climate change, multidimensional resilience solutions, and sensitivity to community vulnerabilities. In June 2014, HUD allocated $930 million of CDBG-DR funds to implement the seven winning designs. The projects are being implemented by the HUD grantees; the States of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut; and New York City, and they have progressed rapidly. Many of the projects have been refined and are undergoing the technical work necessary to obtain the permits and approvals needed to move forward with construction. Read more.
Investing in Resilience Communities across America are grappling with the harmful impact of climate change, and its effects are expected to increase and intensify in the years to come. Erosion and flooding threaten some communities, while others struggle with wildfires made worse by drought. Still others face relocation due to permafrost melt or rising sea levels. Dealing with climate-related impacts is part of HUD’s mission to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and high-quality, affordable homes for all Americans. HUD invests billions of dollars every year in housing, infrastructure, and services for communities across America. As the National Climate Assessment documented, climate-related risk is rapidly increasing. These risks are compounded where there is aging infrastructure and as our population becomes more urbanized and further concentrates along the nation’s coastlines. Essential local and regional infrastructure systems (e.g., water, energy, transportation) are interdependent and increasingly disrupted by the effects of climate change. These effects are exacerbated by existing social inequities that disproportionately affect already vulnerable populations—the same populations that HUD serves every day. Read more.
