Arkansas and Little Rock Awarded Nearly $80M in Storm Recovery Grants

Businesses along Cantrell Road were heavily damaged during the March 2023 tornado. [Karen E. Segrave]

Arkansas and Little Rock, the state’s capital city, have received nearly $80 million in storm recovery grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to rebuild homes, repair infrastructure and provide assistance to small businesses.

The state received $59.04 million. Little Rock received $20.9 million.

The Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery grants are a portion of $12 billion awarded to 47 recipients in communities across 24 states and U.S. territories.

The funds come as parts of Arkansas are still rebuilding from severe storms over the past few years. In May, a storm system brought straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding across the state, leading to a federal disaster declaration. A year earlier, a tornado outbreak damaged homes and businesses in central Arkansas and destroyed Wynne High School in northeast Arkansas. The tornadoes left five people dead.

Rising construction costs have made it difficult for some home and business owners to rebuild. Insurance rates have soared in the wake of the storms, adding to recovery challenges.

The CDB-DR grants are primarily used to benefit low- and moderate-income households and communities.

Funding can be used for the following:

• Replacing damaged affordable housing and building it back more resiliently
• Strengthening infrastructure through repairs, upgrades and activities to increase the resilience of public facilities and infrastructure including roadways, water systems, and utilities
• Supporting economic revitalization including support for small businesses, creation of jobs and assistance for residents
• Implementing disaster mitigation measures to reduce risk of damage from future extreme weather and disaster events

The grants are meant to fill funding gaps in disaster recovery and mitigation not covered by insurance and other federal and local sources. The total allocation amount is based on a formula which considers an estimate of unmet needs for housing, economic revitalization and infrastructure ,plus an additional 15% for mitigation activities.

“Over the last two years, too many communities have been impacted by devastating disasters — damaging homes, destroying infrastructure, and stretching local capacity to recover,” Adrianne Todman, acting HUD secretary, said in a news release. “This $12 billion in disaster discovery funds will help rebuild homes, develop affordable housing, assist impacted small businesses, and repair roads, schools, water treatment plants and other critical infrastructure. The impacts of these funds will be felt for years to come — especially for disaster survivors and communities in the most impacted areas.”