Mayor Duggan thanks HUD Secretary for $57.5 Million Grant for flood recovery and prevention

Detroit - The following is a statement from Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan following today's announcement by HUD Secretary Martha Fudge, allocating $57.5 million in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds to help Detroit recover from disasters and build inclusive resilience to climate change:

The City of Detroit was hit as hard as any during the massive rainstorm last June 25-26th. The nearly $60 million flood disaster recovery grant awarded by HUD today represents funding that is critically needed for our efforts to protect residents living in our most flood-prone neighborhoods.

We will be working closely with HUD officials to fully understand the guidelines and regulations attached to this funding and will pursue permanent measures to protect residents in Jefferson Chalmers from rising water levels along the Detroit River, as well as from basement flooding due to the type of historic rains we saw last year and expect to see again.

We also intend to pursue an expansion of our recently announced basement protection program. The City already has committed $2.4 million for a pilot in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood and Aviation subdivision to install backflow prevention valves and sump pumps. It is our hope that we will be able to use these new HUD funds to expand this program quickly to all 11 areas of the city that have experienced repeated flooding.

We have a team of people working right now to develop creative new approaches to flood resiliency in our city that these HUD funds could be used for.

I can't thank Sec. Fudge enough for providing this badly needed funding to our city and for her continued confidence in our ability to do the most good with the resources HUD provides us.