HUD CPD UPDATE

September 2016

In this issue:

HUD CPD Disaster Recovery and. Resiliency..................... 1

Community Planning and Development (CPD) Leadership: Tennille Smith Parker .................................. 2

CPD Leadership: Donna Roachford ........................... 3

CPD Leadership: Jessie Handforth Kome ................. 4

Homelessness DisasterRecovery Expert: David Canavan .............................. 4

Rebuild by Design Competition ........................ 6

HUD CPD Disaster Recoveryand Resiliency 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.

Like most disaster recovery funds, those dollars went largely to repairing, restoring, and rebuilding housing and existing community assets.

To address this problem, HUD embarked on a transformative effort to rethink the way disaster recovery dollars are spent. Although the Department has long promoted smart rebuilding strategies, under President Obama—particularly in the wake of Hurricane Sandy—HUD has sharply shifted its focus from short-term fixes to long-term recovery and toward ensuring that communities take thoughtful, innovative, and resilient actions to address future risks.

A series of interviews with experts on disaster recovery is presented below. These are to encourage you to consider planning for recovery and resilience in your jurisdiction. Although it may be uncomfortable to think about our community vulnerabilities, given the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, we share the responsibility to do so.

+ “The vast majority [of recovery funds] would be used to lovingly rebuild things exactly

as they were, exactly where they were,” said Harriet Tregoning, who leads HUD’s Office

of Community Planning and Development.

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Community Planning and Development (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.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ms. Parker attended George Mason University, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in government and politics. She also holds a master of public administration degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Interview With Tennille Smith Parker

Q: What do you believe is vital when working on long-term disaster recovery?

A: I think it is important that we help communities recover. Recovery can take years to complete. Disaster recovery is a marathon, not a sprint.

Q: How do we keep our grantees patient and hopeful during the time of a disaster?

A: Grantees are able to create a detailed plan of what they plan to do for their community for recovery. We should make sure we understand what the community’s needs are and help build their capacity to meet those needs and use HUD resources to meet those needs.

Q: What challenges did your office face during the recovery process from Hurricane Sandy?

A: Disaster recovery requires a tandem approach of both focusing on the larger recovery effort and on the needs of individuals and communities.

Q: What has your office learned from previous disasters that has helped with current projects?

A: Recovery is never fast enough, but early intervention pays dividends. When HUD provides technical assistance to communities days and weeks after a disaster, this makes a significant difference in their recovery. Our traditional model of recovery did not have that type of intervention so early in the recovery process. Another lesson we learned was that every disaster is different and each region of the country will recover differently.

+ Recovery is never fast enough, but early intervention pays dividends. Another lesson

we learned was that every disaster is different and each region of the country will recover

differently.

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.

Before working for HUD, Ms. Roachford worked for the Department of the Army, Social Work Service and Mental Health. She was a case manager for child abuse and spouse abuse cases for soldiers stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado. She was also a soldier in the U.S. Army. Ms. Roachford has a bachelor’s degree in management as well as a master’s degree in human resource management and a master’s degree in organizational leadership.

Interview With Donna Roachford

Q: What plan of action was taken in particular for Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, and was it effective?

A: The State of Mississippi developed a comprehensive action plan to address long-term recovery for affected counties. The action plan encompassed restoration of infrastructure, putting residents back in their homes, helping to rebuild businesses so it could retain and create jobs through economic development strategies, and increasing tourism. The action plan was effective because the State took a macro view of recovery needs and developed a strategic plan. From that strategic plan, they developed specific programs to address all community development recovery needs. The programs’ plans became living documents that the State had the flexibility to adjust or amend because circumstances sometimes affected the planned approach. The comprehensive action plan was effective because of the flexibility of the CDBG program and its governing regulations as well as the partnership developed between HUD and the State.

Q: What has been learned in the last 10 years while working on Mississippi’s recovery?

A: Collaboration is essential to recovery and having a sound approach. The partnership between HUD and the State has been a great benefit, as has being receptive to change and being willing to seek alternative solutions and remedies for challenges. Working with the State to provide programmatic updates, as well as continual training, allows Mississippi to administer the program in an expeditious manner so recovery is not hindered.

Q: What can we tell residents 10 years later that will help them today?

A: Residents should contact State and county officials for assistance if they have remaining needs. Anyone who has been affected by a disaster should keep all receipts for items purchased to repair their homes and businesses after the disaster to provide to government officials who may offer reimbursement through recovery programs funded by Federal dollars.

Q: What made Mississippi’s recovery different from other places’? What was done differently?

A: Staff capacity. The State used experienced CDBG staff who had the the necessary skill set to administer the CDBG-DR program. Staff developed a comprehensive recovery plan for Mississippi, which was then implemented in an effective and efficient manner. The dialogue and collaboration between HUD and the State fostered a partnership with one goal in mind: to restore infrastructure, get citizens back into their homes, and rebuild businesses through economic development.

CPD Leadership: Jessie Handforth Kome Deputy Director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance Office of Community Planning and Development, HUD

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.

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.

HUD’S Role in Disaster Recovery With Jessie Handforth Kome HUD works with other Federal partners to provide a comprehensive and holistic response to natural and man-made disasters. HUD’s role is to participate in the recovery portion of a disaster as it relates to the social and built environment.

HUD uses CDBG-DR funds to help communities recover from disasters. These funds are flexible and can be used for many purposes, including housing rehabilitation, social services, and economic development with infrastructure repair. Any projects funded by CDBG-DR must be tied to the initial disaster. HUD also focuses on resilience. It does not make sense to rebuild a structure in a vulnerable area such as a flood plain. In many cases, the CDBG-DR grantee will buy out properties located in a hazardous area. Rebuilding in a resilient fashion is a high priority for HUD. The Department encourages grantees to take resilience into consideration when rebuilding. To support this emphasis on resilience, HUD sponsored two recent competitions: Rebuild by Design and the National Disaster Resilience Competition. In both competitions, communities affected by a disaster developed holistic strategies to incorporate physical and economic resilience into their redevelopment plans. It is anticipated that other communities affected by a disaster will also try to incorporate physical and economic resilience into their redevelopment plans

Homeless Disaster Recovery Expert: David Canavan Technical Assistance (TA) Provider, SNAPS Office, 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 Special Needs Assistance Programs (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 & Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He has led teams of TA providers in the field responding to Superstorm Sandy by assisting tornado-impacted communities and supporting disease containment.

In recent years, Mr. Canavan has worked with the Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center and other HUD partners to support interdisciplinary approaches to enhancing resiliency in community-based organizations.

Interview With David Canavan

David Canavan shares his experiences working with homeless individuals and families:

Individuals and families struggling with poverty and homelessness have no extra resources in their lives.

People experiencing homelessness have no resources in the moment of a disaster—cash, medicine, or groceries. It is crucial to remember this at every step in the process.

The current paradigm of returning survivors to their pre-disaster status incorrectly suggests that a pre-disaster homeless individual can return to living on the streets. The envelope of services, food pantry programs, and shelter providers that help individuals and families is often overlooked in this decisionmaking process. A disaster can impact and even destroy these resources, leaving homeless individuals and families exceedingly vulnerable.

Using the time before a disaster to examine your community and assess potential opportunities for systemic change promotes intentional, thoughtful planning and dialogue, which are hallmarks of community development. Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) program staff have the perspective to ensure the cross-pollination of projects; to envision program changes and understand their impact before national deployment; and to look across the scale of years and even decades to connect phases of the disaster cycle—preparedness, response, and recovery—to understand how community choices affect disaster recovery.

Lessons Learned in Disaster Recovery When responding to the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Louisiana and Mississippi, I led a team, witnessing firsthand the devastating impact of a large-scale disaster. As was clear to everyone, the solutions initially deployed were overwhelmed by the volume of needs. As the gaps in response emerged, community-based organizations stepped up and expanded some programs, redesigned others, and leveraged every relationship—local, national and international—to acquire additional resources on the ground. Seeing these partnerships form in a dynamic environment revealed many of the opportunities within communities to combine local and State resources in a way that exponentially expands the effectiveness of operations.

In Tuscaloosa [Alabama], the scale of the impact was much smaller but the effect of the 2011 tornadoes was no less devastating. Several of the tools that the homeless service system, the CoC, uses every day—such as the community-based approach to case management and the Homeless Management Information System—were adapted and deployed to help the community recover. For example, the city used a local Veterans Administration campus to provide emergency housing; staff met with individuals who had no resources while they were still in the disaster shelter and continued to support those families and individuals with referrals, case plans, and other resources.

Hurricane Sandy illustrated many of the same lessons. Often local service providers best understand the shape and scope of their community’s needs. In the case of New York City, local service providers sought input from New Orleans Katrina survivors to provide a framework for decisionmaking, reinforcing the importance of peer-to-peer learning. It was great to work with the emergency managers and CoCs in New York and New Jersey to try to address the nearly overwhelming impact of this event. Witnessing firsthand the opportunities to bring some of the family shelter practices and transitional housing programs into the context of disaster response and recovery continues to motivate me every day to design and deploy tools for bringing people together.

+ People experiencing homelessness have no resources in the moment of a disaster—

cash, medicine, or groceries. It is crucial to remember this at every step in the process.

Rebuild by Design Competition 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.

The competition has received widespread attention for its multistage, research-based approach to enhancing resilience and its commitment to engaging local communities in developing ideas. Resilience can create a multitude of opportunities. Resilience adaptations would enhance inhabitants’ capacity to cope with extreme weather conditions. These changes could prevent injury, damage, and death. Creating design opportunities can mitigate risks as well as create new opportunities for community life and development. The competition was recently awarded the first-ever “Most Groundbreaking Federal Challenge or Prize Competition” by the General Services Administration and was named one of CNN’s top-10 most innovative ideas of 2013. To learn more, visit http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD%3Fsrc%3D/sandyrebuilding/rebuildbydesign.

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.

Last January, HUD awarded nearly $1 billion to the 13 winners of the National Disaster Resilience Competition. These grants set a new standard for disaster recovery. Applicants developed thorough, integrated approaches that relied on sound science and extensive community engagement. They set a new standard for disaster recovery. Unlike many infrastructure projects, applicants proposed projects that achieved multiple community objectives, for example, parks and greenways that capture and treat floodwater in heavy storms. In addition, several applicants focused on the development of distributed energy generation that will increase community resilience against power outages and provide clean energy for years to come.

These grants showcased how well-designed projects, formed by partnership at all levels, can increase communities’ resilience to many types of change. When all levels of government work together with philanthropy and industry, we can unlock American creativity and innovation to address the pressing challenges of our generation.

Resilient communities can respond to or recover rapidly from any disruption. In other words, resilient communities are healthy, thriving, and built to last. Therefore, recovery and hazard mitigation investments need to provide additional community benefits and also address underlying social and economic disparities.

Although the National Disaster Resilience Competition has concluded, communities can use novel financing and procurement strategies to create high-performance infrastructure projects that increase community resilience.

To learn more about accessing TA and available resources, check out HUD’s new fact sheet on financing high-performance infrastructure at www.hud.gov/resilience.

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For more information: www.hud.gov