Nearly $67M heading to Hawaii

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Monday that Hawaii will receive $66.9 million in new federal disaster relief funding.

The new Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding will help state and local governments rebuild impacted communities, especially in low- and moderate-income areas, and provide resources to help businesses recover.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, worked with federal agencies and state and county officials to ensure Hawaii submitted a strong application to receive the maximum amount of funding, according to a press release.

The new funding allocation was part of the $1.7 billion housing disaster recovery package Congress passed last year.

“As we continue to recover from the series of natural disasters that hit our state, these new federal grants will be a huge help,” Schatz said in the press release.

With the nearly $67 million in housing grants announced today, Hawaii has now been allocated more than $429 million in federal relief funding to help the state recover from the flooding in April 2018 that hammered Kauai, Hurricane Lane, and the eruption of Kilauea on Hawaii Island.