U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced yesterday the second allocation of Federal Transit Administration (FTA) aid related to Hurricane Sandy through the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 (the “Disaster Relief Act”). The allocated funds announced total $164.2 million, with nearly all of that funding ($163.4 million) going to reimburse New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJT), the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH) and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for expenses incurred to support Hurricane Sandy preparation and recovery efforts.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday released several model programs to help communities get remaining Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds more quickly. The Disaster Relief Act included $16 billion in CDBG-DR funding. So far, HUD has announced funding allocations to five states and New York City totaling $5.4 billion, leaving $11.6 billion remaining. The model program designs released on Friday cover three areas where communities are likely to need CDBG-DR funding:  housing rehabilitation, housing counseling, and housing buyouts.

Link(s): FTA News Release; HUD News Release