Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for Mitigation

• The public comment period for the latest amendment to the CDBG-Mitigation Action Plan closed on April 15, 2024. The final draft of the amended plan is currently being reviewed by HUD. Please stay tuned for updates on the revised plan.
• NCORR and the State Disaster Recovery Task Force’s Housing Recovery Support Function Group have established a CDBG-Mitigation Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC). The purpose of this committee is to serve as an ongoing public forum for comments and input regarding NCORR’s CDBG-Mitigation projects and programs.  Please check this website for the schedule of upcoming CAC meetings.

North Carolina pays for mitigation activities with Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funds, which have been allocated to the state by the US Congress and approved for use by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD made $168 million in CDBG-MIT funds available to North Carolina for mitigation activities in 2019 and $34.6 million in 2021 for a total of $202 million.

Under federal guidelines, CDBG-MIT funds must be used for projects that reduce future losses. Additionally, North Carolina must:

• Spend at least 50% of the funds to benefit counties that HUD designated as being “most impacted and distressed” by Hurricanes Florence and Matthew.
• Use at least 50% of the funds for activities that benefit low- and moderate-income residents.

Resilience planning and technical assistance activities that are already underway or completed include:

• NC Resilient Coastal Communities Program (RCCP)
  • Partner Organization: NC Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) Division of Coastal Management
  • Activity Summary: This state, local and private partnership provides technical and financial assistance to help local communities overcome barriers in coastal resilience and adaptation planning, and to boost local government capacity in the state’s 20 coastal counties. NCORR provides partial funding for this program, funding 14 Resilience Strategies for coastal communities created using the RCCP Planning Handbook (PDF). Completed Resilience Strategies and Project Portfolios are located on the NC Resilient Coastal Communities Program website. 
• Regions Innovating for Strong Economies and Environment (RISE) Regional Resilience Portfolio Program
  • Partner Organizations: AECOM, Kleinfelder, and Tetra Tech
  • Activity Summary: RISE aims to support resilience in storm-impacted regions of North Carolina by providing technical assistance to partners to support vulnerability assessments, identify priority risk reduction actions and enhance resilience. RISE also supports the development of the NC Resilience Communities Guide and hosts regional leadership training workshops that emphasize resilience as a tool for community economic development. RISE activities are partly funded by CDBG-MIT planning funds in RISE regions representing COG regions J, L, M, N, O, P and Q.
• Eastern NC Community Floodprints: Accelerating Rural Recovery and Resilience
  • Partner Organizations: Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (CDDL)
  • Activity Summary: CDDL uses CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT planning funds to develop 10 local community floodprints supporting the "Most Impacted and Distressed" (MID) communities. A floodprint is a landscape planning approach developed by CDDL to address land and water relationships. Floodprints are important tools for building future community resilience, and the development process incorporates issues such as flooding, recovery and equity into the planning process. 
• Statewide Probable Maximum Precipitation Study for North Carolina
  • Partner Organization: NCDEQ Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources
  • Activity Summary: NCDEQ is using NCORR planning funds to support a study of the probable maximum amount of precipitation at a location for a given duration that is meteorologically possible (the “worst case” scenario for rain or snow). This updated data will support watershed and resilience planning by helping governments and other entities plan for the design, location and relocation of water infrastructure — such as dams, culverts and drainage networks — and ensure safety and functionality. 
• Low Flow Statistics Re-Evaluation
  • Partner Organization: NCDEQ Division of Water Resources (DWR)
  • Activity Summary: DWR is using NCORR planning funds for a low flow (drought) study. Low flow statistics help decision-makers understand how much water is available for drinking and other uses.  Effective stormwater management, wastewater permitting, and water supply and availability assessments require up-to-date low flow statistics in order to assist the state in its resilience planning efforts.
• Natural Infrastructure Flood Mitigation Program and Nature-Based Flooding Solutions
  • Partner Organization: NCDEQ Division of Mitigation Services (DMS)
  • Activity Summary: NCDEQ is using NCORR planning funds to develop the DMS Natural Infrastructure Flood Mitigation Program (NIFMP), including forming an advisory board; establishing program goals, objectives and performance metrics; creating a watershed planning strategy to integrate projects into current DMS watershed planning activities; integrating NIFMP development into current flood mitigation practices within North Carolina; and modeling various nature-based solution restoration practices to quantify effectiveness.
• Atlas 14 Rainfall Statistics Update
  • Partner Organization: NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT)
    Activity Summary: NCDOT is using NCORR planning funds to support the Transportation Pooled Study, which will update the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's  “Atlas 14” precipitation intensity, duration, and frequency estimates. This data is used by the public and private sectors to design everything from drainage for public highways and bridges to stormwater infrastructure for residential development.
• Regional Precipitation Frequency Estimates and Data System
  • Partner Organization: North Carolina State University (NCSU), State Climate Office of North Carolina (SCO)
  • Activity Summary:  NCSU and the SCO are using NCORR planning funds to update the statewide Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves to account for climate change projections and quantify future risk, prepare statewide projections of future precipitation extremes using the newest downscaled climate model, evaluate the efficacy of existing IDF curve tools and applications, identify future flood risk hotspots outside of FEMA floodplains, and create an end-user driven system for analyzing, displaying, disseminating and storing the data.
• Downscaled Climate Projection Development
  • Partner Organization: NCSU State Climate Office of North Carolina (SCO)
  • Activity Summary: SCO is using NCORR planning funds to develop a suite of climate projections at smaller spatial scales, such as single watersheds, for use by local and regional stakeholders. These projections account for drought, fire danger, heat, heavy precipitation, sea level rise, sunny day flooding and cold, along with accompanying descriptions and an application programming interface to enable NCORR to import the data into a state website for public access. SCO will also provide a standard operating procedure to facilitate future data updates and build and maintain a web application that displays climate projection data through December 2028.
• Heat Wave Management Protocol Development
  • Partner Organization: NCSU State Climate Office of North Carolina (SCO)
  • Activity Summary: SCO is using NCORR funds to develop a template heat wave management protocol, including messaging templates in English and Spanish, and accompanying instructional documents. SCO will host a workshop to guide users through the adoption of the template protocol and receive feedback on the deliverables. All documents will be designed for use by local governments in North Carolina.
• Backup Energy Sources for Critical Facilities in Marginalized Communities
  • Partner Organization: Mid-Carolina Council of Governments (MCCOG)
  • Activity Summary: MCCOG is using NCORR planning funds to develop a regional plan for backup energy sources to support critical facilities in marginalized communities. MCCOG will work with communities to generate a list of critical infrastructure energy needs, prioritize projects based on the vulnerability level of each community and the needs of the facilities, and identify potential funding sources to implement the plan. 
• Digital Resilience Clearinghouse
  • Partner Organization: N/A (NCORR staff only)
  • Activity Summary: The Digital Resilience Clearinghouse will be a shared online resource for data, case studies, guidance, and funding resources. The target audience is local leaders, and the intention is to put information about flooding and other risks into the hands of people in a position to use it in their community.

The resilience team is currently developing additional mitigation activities that may include the creation of model ordinance language, as well as analyses and white papers to support mitigation technical assistance and planning activities. Additional details will be published on this website as they are developed. 

Mitigation programs include:

• Strategic Buyout Program
  • The Strategic Buyout Program designates Disaster Risk Reduction Areas (DRRAs) in areas that are particularly vulnerable to property damage from future disasters. NCORR provides funding for the purchase of eligible properties in DRRAs. Participation in the program is voluntary, and applicants are provided with housing counseling services in order to help applicants select the best subsequent housing option. Once the applicant has relocated, a deed restriction is filed on the parcel, restricting future development and mitigating future damage to communities.
• Infrastructure Recovery Program
  • The Infrastructure Recovery Program repairs, replaces, rebuilds, makes more resilient, or improves public facilities that were damaged by Hurricane Florence and Matthew, and engages in public service activities that support community recovery. Examples include, but are not limited to, roads, schools, water and wastewater treatment facilities, parks and other public facilities that communities have determined are important publicly owned assets. NCORR prioritizes projects based on their ability to reduce risk and loss of life and property during future disasters and to improve resilience for underserved communities and vulnerable populations.
• Public Housing Restoration Fund
  • The Public Housing Restoration Fund provides funding to rehabilitate, repair, or replace public housing authority properties that were negatively affected by Hurricanes Florence and Matthew. Funds are also used to address unmet recovery long term and mitigation, or to make facilities more resilient from future storm events.
• Affordable Housing Development Fund
  • The Affordable Housing Development Fund seeks to create new housing stock in a way that is more responsive to the needs of the recovering community while mitigating the effects of potential future hazards through resilient design and planning. NCORR solicits projects from qualified property management organizations; public, private, or nonprofit organizations; and Community Development Housing Organizations (CHDOs)/Community Based Development Organizations (CBDOs) to determine the best fit for affordable housing, responsive to the needs of impacted communities. Assistance to facilitate new construction, rehabilitation, or reconstruction of housing units is provided in the form of loans, unless a compelling reason is presented in the application for an alternative funding arrangement (such as a grant).
• Homeownership Assistance Program
  • The Homeownership Assistance Program allows for up to $20,000 in down payment assistance for eligible applicants and up to $30,000 for applicants who are first-generation homebuyers, plus up to 5% in reasonable and customary closing costs incurred by first-time buyers to move to areas that would be more resilient to potential future hazards. Eligible applicants include first-time homebuyers within a county impacted by Hurricane Florence or Matthew or those seeking to relocate to an impacted county. Homes purchased with down payment assistance must be outside of the 100-year floodplain, and eligible homebuying households must earn no more than 120% of the area median income. Prospective applicants must engage with Housing Counseling services to determine what service they may require in order to proceed with a benefit from this program.
• Housing Counseling – Homeownership Assistance Program
  • The Housing Counseling component of the Homeownership Assistance Program serves to bridge the gap between other CDBG-MIT-funded services and the complex and personal decisions made by applicants to those programs on housing affordability and suitability specific to their individual needs. Specific services may include homebuyer and homeowner education, financial literacy, credit rehabilitation, debt management, budgeting, avoiding fraud and scams, applying for public and private resources, foreclosure prevention strategies, and relocation counseling among other services tailored to fit the beneficiary’s needs.
• Code Enforcement and Compliance Support Program
  • To account for the increased demand for code enforcement due to increased construction work associated with mitigation activities, the Code Enforcement and Compliance Support Program identifies deteriorated or deteriorating areas, and provides funding and resources to carry out code enforcement activities necessary to complete disaster recovery in those areas.

The initial Action Plan was developed in 2019, in response to the release of the first Federal Register notice that specified the requirements for the mitigation funds on Aug. 30, 2019. Based on risk assessment data, the State Hazard Mitigation Plan, and feedback from local government and community input, the state developed its Draft Action Plan, which outlined how the money will be used. After a 45-day public comment period, NCORR submitted the Draft Action Plan and the required Citizen Participation Plan to HUD for approval, which was granted on March 13, 2020.

Since the submission of the initial Action Plan, additional amendments have been made. HUD approved the CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 1 (PDF) on March 9, 2021. 

In January 2021, HUD allocated an additional $34.6 Million to NCORR under the Federal Register Notice. The plans for these additional funds were included in CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 2. A virtual public hearing was held on June 22, 2021, as part of a public comment period. A video recording and transcriptions of the hearing can be found below.
Public Hearing Recording
English Presentation  Spanish Presentation
Transcript in English  Transcript in Spanish   

CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 2 (PDF) was approved by HUD on Aug. 30, 2021. On Feb. 8, 2022, HUD approved CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 3 (PDF). On Dec. 9, 2022, HUD approved CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 4 (PDF). The public comment period for CDBG-MIT Substantial Action Plan Amendment 5 (PDF) ended on April 15, 2024. The amendment is currently being reviewed by HUD.

View past versions as well as the current CDBG-MIT Action Plan and the Citizen Participation Plan.