This NOFO announces the availability of up to $600,000 to study the effectiveness of disaster recovery funding after wildfire. The goal of the research is to increase the capacity of communities affected by wildfire to use disaster assistance to enhance resilience to wildfire, especially the resilience of low- and moderate-income persons and communities. HUD anticipates the need for such knowledge because in recent years wildfire disasters have become more frequent and destructive and HUD has sharply increased allocations of disaster assistance for wildfires through the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) programs.
HUD is soliciting proposals that use a community studies method to examine positive, negative, and neutral effects of disaster assistance on the resilience to wildfire of low- and moderateincome persons and communities. HUD seeks proposals that will consider both biophysical factors (e.g., defensible space, location of buildings) and social factors (e.g., insurance coverage, education) that affect resilience to wildfire, including actions that may be individual (e.g., putting a new roof on your home, having a get-away bag at your front door) and collective (e.g., building codes and enforcement, free chipper days). “Community studies method” means an observational study that uses multiple data sources to investigate a problem within the context of other behavior and attitudes within a community (adapted from Arensberg, 1954). HUD will consider both retrospective and prospective studies for funding.
Deadline: July 19, 2022
Minimum Award Amount: $200,000 Per Project Period
Maximum Award Amount: $600,000 Per Project Period