WEBVTT

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Hello, everyone. Welcome to the NIBS
Resilience 2021 webinar.

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My name is JQ Yuan.

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I am the executive director for the Hazard
Mitigation Council.

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Also, the Building Seismic Safety Council at
the National Institute of Building Sciences,

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known as NIBS.

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So NIBS was established in 1974 by Congress
to ensure

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that the all areas of the built environment
work together to utilize the

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best to utilize the best technology and the
focus on sustainability

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when creating the place where we all live,
work, learn and play.

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Developing research and community expert to
solve problems is part of our overall

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mission, and that is why we have brought all
of you together today.

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So mitigation is the sustained action plan to
reduce or

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eliminate the long term risk to people and
property from natural hazards.

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Over the last decades, the US has seen a
shift in the emergency management

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from relief and the response to reducing
hazard risk.

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Key point in this effort are building
resilient communities and

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creating community community based disaster
management plans.

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The NIBS's Natural Hazards Mitigation Study
has found that mitigation saves

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up to 13 per dollar invested.

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Furthermore, the study found that, you know,
for the federal grants, saves up to six

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dollars per dollar invested.

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The federal government have really stepped up
their effort on mitigating mitigation

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investment like the famous bridge program.

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Also, the CDBG meet, which we will hear about
today.

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So our goal at NIBS is to work with our
partners and agencies to

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make positive change and to improve our
communication and

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continue to produce research that provides
solutions.

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Now, it's my honor today to introduce our
panel panel today.

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Our first speaker today is Kevin Bush.

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So Kevin is the deputy assistant secretary
for grant programs at the

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US Department of Housing and Urban
Development.

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Kevin oversees affordable housing and the
community development programs,

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including the Community Development Block
grant program known as

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CDBG, the Home, the Home Investment
Partnerships

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Program, the Housing Trust Fund, the CDBG
disaster recovery

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funds, in addition to the Department of Wide
Energy and Environmental

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Policies. Previously, Kevin served as the
Washington D.C.'s

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first chief resilience officer, where he led
the efforts to

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prepare the nation's capital for climate
change, technological disruption and

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the changing economy.

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He also served as the chief of resilience and
emergency preparedness

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at the district's Homeland Security and the
Emergency Management Agency during the

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district's response to the COVID 19 pandemic.

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Welcome, Kevin.

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So our second speaker today is Eric Letvin.

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Eric is the deputy assistant and deputy
assistant administrator for

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mitigation to federal at the Federal
Emergency Management Agency

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FEMA. So Eric directs FEMA's pre and
post-disaster mitigation

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programs that support sustainable, disaster,
resilient communities

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to avoid or reduce the loss of a life
property and the financial

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impacts of natural hazards.

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These programs include the Building
Resilience Building and Resilient

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Infrastructure and Community Grant Program,
known as Brick, the Hazard

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Education Grant Program.

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The Flood Mitigation Assistance Grants the
flood.

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The flood management component of national
flood insurance program, known as

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NFIP, also the community rating systems under
NFIP

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in foundation regulates the hazard mitigation
disaster workforce and the overall disaster

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operations for the federal insurance and
Insurance and Medication Administration.

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Mr. Letterman was appointed to the Senior
Executive Service in 2016.

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Welcome, Eric.

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So our third speaker is Judson Freed.

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Judd is the director of Emergency Management
and Homeland Security at

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Ramsey County, Minnesota, one of the nation's
most densely populated

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or large urban counties.

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He is the immediate past president of IAEM
USA.

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Also, as a member of the board of directors
of the IAEM Global,

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he has more than 30 years of experience in
emergency management, Homeland

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Security, risk resilience and continuity.

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But our next I'm going to introduce our
moderator today, Bryan Koon.

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Bryan is the former director of the Florida
Division of Emergency Management.

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And serves as the IEM vice president for
Homeland Security

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and Emergency Management.

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Bryan also serves as the immediate past chair
for the NIBS's Hazard

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Mitigation Council, MMC, leading the expert
in mitigation

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that helps inform policy and advocates for
smart mitigation

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practice nationwide.

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So here I want to add my personal also
special thanks for Bryan's leadership.

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In the past many years, it's a really great
privilege to work with Bryan.

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In the past many years.

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So Bryan has spent his career focused on
improving the

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emergency response and operation in kitchen
communities

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in becoming better prepared for emergencies
and disasters.

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Bryan joins IEM with a well-rounded
background of military

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consultant who operate business and the
public sector experience.

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Bryan was appointed by the Florida governor,
Rick Scott, in

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2011 to be the state's director of emergency
management.

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So with that, I will hand it over to Bryan to
moderate. Welcome everyone. Thank you.

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Thanks JQ, thanks all the panelists.

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I also spent a few minutes perusing the
attendee list as we

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were getting this thing going, so it was
great to see a lot of familiar names on

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there. Hi, Laura. You need to catch up.

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But as you said, I've been spending a lot of
time in my career working on mitigation.

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In addition to the work at the MMC, I'm on
the board of directors for the Federal

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Alliance for Safe Homes.

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I was the chair of the Mitigation Committee
for MEMA for a couple of years.

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I was a huge advocate of the Consumer Credit
Community

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Rating System, portion of the National Flood
Insurance Program or the State of Florida. So

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I was even an advocate for the deductible
model.

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But I put forward a number of years ago
simply because I thought it would enhance the

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way we do mitigation across the country. So
I'm extremely excited in

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2021 to see all of the new attention and
refreshed

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attention being paid to mitigation.

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The new funding streams the new amount for
the old funding streams,

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the importance placed on it.

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It's terrific.

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Really excited to see that because it's
really, frankly quite

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necessary right now.

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The pace of disasters, the size of disasters
is only going to increase if we're ever going

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to get ahead of them and reduce the loss of
lives, reduce the loss of property.

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We have to focus more on mitigation and smart
mitigation

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to really focus in on those those largest
hazards.

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So thrilled to be talking to this group of
experts today, eager to

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hear what they have to say about the programs
that they are overseeing and also to share

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with us the challenges that we all face.
Before we started here, we were chatting

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amongst ourselves and discussed the
difficulty that all of us are having in

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finding good qualified folks who understand
the mitigation program and bring them on

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board because frankly, the programs are
expanding at a larger rate than the staff.

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We have to do them.

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That's on the government side and the private
sector side. I like there was an article in

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The Washington Post the other day that
discussed FEMA's hazard mitigation grant

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program and the time it takes to get projects
completed.

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According to The Washington Post, the average
HMG project takes eighty three months to get

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completed, so, you know, lots of challenges
remain.

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And so eager to hear from our panel today
about what their

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perspective is on it and what the path
forward is that they see for the

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country and for the programs they oversee and
how all of

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us can play a role in improving what it is
we're doing for mitigation efforts across

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the country. So with that, I will turn it
over to the speakers.

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Two quick notes.

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If you have questions for the panel and I
encourage you to ask questions, hit

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the QA button, QA button down at the bottom
of the screen and

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type it in. And then I will go through as
many of those questions as we can at the end

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of their prepared remarks.

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The other one is this will be the session is
being recorded and will be available on the

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NIBS website later on this week.

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And so you can share it with those folks who
are unable to be on today. So without further

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ado, we will go to our first presenter and
Kevin, I will turn it over to you.

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Great. Thanks, Bryan, and thanks JQ for
hosting us today and everybody that's

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decided to join us virtually. It's good to be
with you even virtually right now.

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You know, I have the pleasure of working with
states and local governments across the

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country every day to provide affordable
housing, community

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development, economic opportunity and even
resilience to individuals and

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families, particularly in low and moderate
income communities.

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So at HUD, we know that cities are on the
front line of the

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climate crisis on top of all of the other
crises that we're dealing with

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today, and that they hold many of the keys to
a more equitable and resilient

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future probably don't have to tell the folks
on the phone here.

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But cities are increasingly impacted by the
challenges, such as heat

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flooding, sea level rise.

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In addition to the everyday things they have
to deal with, from population

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growth to aging infrastructure and lack of
affordable housing.

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Unfortunately, the most vulnerable among us,
especially poor people and people of color,

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are more likely to suffer as a result of
those challenges.

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And for too long, in too many places, people
of color have been forced to live in the

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least desirable areas near hazards like
landfills and toxic waste

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facilities, and in areas like flood zones
that leave them exposed to extreme

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weather. The president has called on every
part of the government, and I hear

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from my colleague Eric in a moment to help
shape our nation's response to the climate

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crisis. This includes engaging with our
cities so they can act as hubs of

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innovation and tackling the climate.

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Climate crisis and the inequities that in
exasperates we understand

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that each of our agencies has an important
role to play, including the one that I work

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in HUD and we understand the ongoing threat
of climate change

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because it's hurting the people that we serve
through our core programs. And that's

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ultimately what I wanted to talk about today
is, yes, I want to talk about

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our CDBG and CDBG and the historic
investments that we've made in recent

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years in disaster recovery and resilience.

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But I also want to talk about the the normal
annual programs that we

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have and how they can contribute to building
resilience and

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mitigating hazards.

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So many of you probably know and tuned in to
hear more about the

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CDBG DD-WRT program.

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It's existed now for for 28 years, although
it lacks a permanent

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authorization. There's been supplemental
appropriations going back that long.

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And right now we have sixty seven billion
dollars in active grants under

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management for recovery from disasters as
diverse as as

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wildfires in straight line winds storms.

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There's a lot of mitigation and resilience
built into the program.

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Our hope, ultimately, is that we don't have
to come back to

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communities a second time when we've been
there before with with

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funding. A few examples.

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Birmingham, Alabama.

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In 2011, a tornado leveled much of Pratt
City, a largely African-American

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suburb, and displaced more than a thousand
residents.

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Pratt City used their CDBG grants to invest
in a new library with storm

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strength glass for neighborhood storm
shelters, a six acre park and new housing

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construction, including homes for seniors in
HUD.

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Ultimately, in partnership with a broad
coalition of city city leaders, helped

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transform Pratt City into a more resilient
neighborhood.

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And in addition, we can look to the community
of Minot, North Dakota,

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which experienced devastating flooding in
2011.

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The disaster hurt the city's most vulnerable
residents and caused the evacuation of one

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quarter of the town's population in the wake
of the flooding.

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Local leaders used CDBG D.R.

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through the National Disaster Resilience
Competition to help people of modest means

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purchase single family homes in neighborhoods
outside of flood zones.

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So leaders throughout the nation are using
HUD resources to invest in projects that

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help vulnerable communities build resilience
to climate change while furthering fair

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housing and making neighborhoods safer and
more desirable to live.

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But as I mentioned, our our work with
communities doesn't stop with

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disasters and ultimately the best time to to
mitigate

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hazards is before they present themselves.

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And so we have committed.

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And just recently, last week, HUD published a
new climate action

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plan that covers both climate adaptation, but
it also covers reducing

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greenhouse gases and correcting environmental
and climate injustices.

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And in that plan, we laid out a number of
activities that will

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undertake that together represent really a
historic shift for the department.

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In my own world, we've committed to and have
already launched a climate resilience

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toolkit and a set of resources online that
will help our state and local

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government partners understand how they can
use their core annual funding,

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not the disaster funding, but the annual
funding that comes every year to address

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the needs of the low and moderate income
communities in in their

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jurisdictions and the disproportionate
climate risks that we face.

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So we're stepping up to answer the
president's call for a whole of government

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approach. And although you might not think of
us normally as a as an

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agency contributing to hazard mitigation,
ultimately

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we see this as a core principle of all our
programs.

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We're we're in the housing and urban
development business, and the people we serve

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are are often more impacted by these
disasters than others.

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So it really is a core part of our mission.

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So thanks for inviting me here to be with you
today, and I look forward to a good Q&A.

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We're very much getting Eric, would you like
to speak about your programs?

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Absolutely. I will share my screen here.

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I'll try to move. Pretty quickly.

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So I'm just going to I was asked to give a
brief update on building resilient

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infrastructure and communities.

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But I would talk about a couple of other
things that have happened recently. So our

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priorities in BRIC have shifted a little bit
in year two,

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but there's still to mitigate public
infrastructure, make

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communities more resilient, mitigate
lifelines.

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Our administrator, Chris Will talks about
systemwide mitigation,

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incorporating nature based solutions,
enhancing climate resilience

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and adaptation. Consider what that future
risk will be and to

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certainly incentivize the adoption and
enforcement of the latest published

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editions of the building codes.

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So the available funding this year.

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President Biden came over to FEMA earlier in
the summer and announced

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$1 billion will be available this year.

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The application has currently opened.

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We increase the a lot of folks had commented
on this

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increase the allocation for each state and
territory up to a

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million dollars, and we also increase the
tribal set aside.

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So that leaves about nine hundred and
nineteen million dollars approximately for

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the the competition.

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So against some of the changes, as I
mentioned with the funding

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levels, we also wanted to reach out to
communities

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who probably have never applied for a FEMA
grant before and provide

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them technical assistance to help them with
their project development or their

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hazard planning or environmental and historic
preservation

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benefit costs. So we increase the number of
communities to share and streamline that

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process for which they can come in and ask
for ask for

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help. We made some changes in our competition
criteria

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incorporated equity across multiple criteria
in our program.

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We tiered the building codes points because
we have a new edition of the international

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code that just came out.

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So overall, we increased it from two hundred
to two hundred and thirty points.

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And again, a focus on economically
disadvantaged rural

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communities. We are a pilot program.

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The White House came out with Justice 40, so
our BRIC

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and flood mitigation assistance is a

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pilot for the Justice 40 initiative.

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And the goal there is to have a 40 percent
goal of

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the federal grants going to the Justice 40
communities

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that fall under that particular criteria.

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So there's more information available in the
White House and what that criteria is and

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how that whole program works. But we're real
excited we are able to

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become part of the pilot program for Justice
40.

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Again, we as I mentioned, we we increase the
number of

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communities for technical assistance we've
heard over and over from our our

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stakeholders that, you know, applying for any
federal grant can be challenging and

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there's a number of criteria that by law that
have to be have to be met.

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So how can we help communities, especially
ones who have vulnerabilities

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and are economically disadvantaged?

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How do we help them?

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How do we bridge the gap between?

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How it's challenging for them to apply.

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How can we help them apply and move along and
ultimately lead to an award to

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that, that particular community?

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Again, a real focus on building codes and
standards.

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Those are eligible activities, you know, by
law under BRICs.

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So I'll cover those shortly.

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This is the first year that we, we we made
our selections back in June.

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So proud to announce some, some examples of
communities that were

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successful submitting BRIC building code
applications.

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So here's some communities that were
successful for

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evaluating the adoption and or implementation
of codes that

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reduce risk.

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And again, enhancing existing adopted codes
to incorporate more current

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requirements. There's a number of awards
there and also develop

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a professional workplace capabilities through
technical assistance and training. We made a

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00:21:10.750 --> 00:21:15.130
number of awards in that area as well, so
we're excited about these

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sub applications that were selected for
further review.

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And we hope to see more.

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We have more funding in this next year or the
first year. We were seven times

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oversubscribed. It was a huge demand and
there was a lot of good projects that quite

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frankly, just fell below the funding line
because we had we had to draw it somewhere.

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So we're hoping with increased funding in
this next year to fund even more projects of

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this type. We've had a number of webinars
this

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summer. I'll leave you with this. If you
haven't gone to our website, our webinars

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should be up there. We have different areas.

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00:21:51.490 --> 00:21:56.110
So in terms of how the points, I'm not going
to cover it here for the sake of time,

304
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but how to gain the points and where points
were,

305
00:22:00.430 --> 00:22:05.200
which applications did well with certain
areas really essentially trying to

306
00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:10.030
help you submit the best application that you
can for BRIC and increase your chances

307
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of receiving an award.

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So we have a tremendous amount of support
materials, so I encourage you

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00:22:17.380 --> 00:22:22.150
to go there and we have helplines available
to help you through any challenges

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that you may have.

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00:22:23.260 --> 00:22:26.890
We have excellent staff that and contractors
that support those.

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00:22:27.900 --> 00:22:31.740
So whatever one wants to be to talk about
what's just got signed into law,

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the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,
it did include

314
00:22:38.130 --> 00:22:42.930
some additional funding for BRIC a billion
dollars over five

315
00:22:42.930 --> 00:22:47.160
years or $200 million per year, and that's in
addition to

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the six percent set aside.

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00:22:50.260 --> 00:22:53.250
So it's essentially a plus up into BRIC.

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The real big change and this is a huge change
in our flood mitigation assistance program,

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00:22:58.380 --> 00:23:03.090
which is roughly funded around two hundred
two hundred and fifty million dollars per

320
00:23:03.090 --> 00:23:08.010
year. That program goes towards mitigating
repetitive loss structures

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from flooding. Three point five billion
dollars over five years

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00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:14.850
or $700 million per year.

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00:23:14.850 --> 00:23:19.200
We have a lot of data that shows that the the
type of structures

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00:23:19.740 --> 00:23:22.950
that are applying are repetitive loss
structures again. But a lot of these

325
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structures come from disadvantaged
communities, so we're real excited about

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having these funds available to help
homeowners either elevate or

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00:23:32.910 --> 00:23:34.350
or move out of their homes.

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That's against a voluntary program and the
Safeguarding

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Tomorrow through ongoing risk mitigation or
Storm Act.

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This is brand new $500 million over five
years

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00:23:48.660 --> 00:23:53.130
for a mitigation revolving loan fund that
that's a brand new

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00:23:53.130 --> 00:23:57.060
program that was was signed into law last
December.

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But we finally have an appropriation now so
we can begin implementing that new grant

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00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:07.170
program. So what that does is it authorizes
FEMA to

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00:24:07.170 --> 00:24:11.220
provide capitalization grants to states or
eligible tribal governments.

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00:24:11.730 --> 00:24:15.990
It's very similar to what a lot of you may be
familiar with with the Environmental

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00:24:15.990 --> 00:24:19.830
Protection Agency with the revolving loan
fund for Water and Wastewater.

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00:24:20.250 --> 00:24:24.030
That's how a lot of those upgrades are that's
been around since the 80s.

339
00:24:24.030 --> 00:24:28.200
That's how a lot of those upgrades to local
wastewater treatment plants are are done

340
00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:31.530
through a revolving loan fund, but now we
have one for mitigation.

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00:24:32.070 --> 00:24:36.150
So we would essentially now that we have the
appropriation, FEMA would provide the

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00:24:36.150 --> 00:24:40.440
capitalization grant to the state or tribal
government, and then that goes into a

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00:24:40.440 --> 00:24:44.820
revolving loan where local governments can
make

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00:24:44.820 --> 00:24:46.260
applications against it.

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00:24:46.260 --> 00:24:50.340
So that's the the overall structure, what
that would would look like.

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00:24:50.340 --> 00:24:54.780
So we're excited about being able to
implement that and have a new mitigation

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00:24:54.780 --> 00:24:57.780
program. So I will end it there.

348
00:25:02.650 --> 00:25:03.550
Turn it back over.

349
00:25:05.230 --> 00:25:09.220
Thank you, Eric. I have a sense that you're
going to get a fair number of questions. I

350
00:25:09.220 --> 00:25:13.540
think you're right. All right, Judd,

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00:25:14.080 --> 00:25:18.940
you are had a completely different
perspective on this than the other two

352
00:25:18.940 --> 00:25:23.380
gentlemen and given your job and your role
with

353
00:25:23.380 --> 00:25:27.790
IAEA. Tell us what you're what you're seeing
and

354
00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:30.280
how you'd see mitigation playing a role.

355
00:25:31.150 --> 00:25:32.530
Well, thanks, Bryan. Yeah.

356
00:25:32.530 --> 00:25:36.520
So I'm going to take a look at this from
where the rubber meets the road.

357
00:25:36.830 --> 00:25:41.200
You know, in my role with IAEM and I'm also
on the board of directors at the National

358
00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:45.640
Association of Counties, I worked real hard
with a lot of other

359
00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:50.470
folks on trying to get BRIC into law, and
it's an

360
00:25:50.470 --> 00:25:52.030
outstanding program.

361
00:25:52.600 --> 00:25:57.340
And, you know, as an emergency manager now
for for over 30 years,

362
00:25:58.210 --> 00:26:03.070
making use of these programs is become a
larger and larger part of

363
00:26:03.070 --> 00:26:07.570
what we do. The problem, of course, being
that at the local level,

364
00:26:08.200 --> 00:26:13.170
where we're small and or without the

365
00:26:13.690 --> 00:26:16.660
capacity sometimes to do everything that we
need to do.

366
00:26:16.660 --> 00:26:21.220
And that's our fault. It's not it's not
FEMA's fault, it's ours at the local level.

367
00:26:21.220 --> 00:26:25.120
But we'll talk about that a little bit kind
of breaking things down. I didn't really have

368
00:26:25.120 --> 00:26:27.340
a good name on this, so I just invented one.

369
00:26:28.660 --> 00:26:33.490
What I wanted to say is that in our agency,
about four or five years ago,

370
00:26:33.940 --> 00:26:39.520
we adopted a the concept of resilience as our
primary

371
00:26:39.520 --> 00:26:41.350
driving concept.

372
00:26:41.380 --> 00:26:45.940
What I've learned over the years is that all
of the years of of going out there and doing

373
00:26:45.940 --> 00:26:50.620
public, speaking about building a kit and
getting prepared

374
00:26:50.860 --> 00:26:55.630
kind of fell on deaf ears in a community like
mine. Ramsey County, Minnesota As a large

375
00:26:55.630 --> 00:26:59.530
urban county in the center of the United
States, part of the Twin Cities,

376
00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:05.410
the city of St. Paul, our state capital is
located there. We average around

377
00:27:05.410 --> 00:27:07.320
3600 people per square mile.

378
00:27:07.330 --> 00:27:10.750
Depends on where you measure us could be
thirty two hundred, but it's very densely

379
00:27:10.750 --> 00:27:14.740
populated. We're also an extremely poor urban
county.

380
00:27:15.190 --> 00:27:20.080
We have have a very low per capita income and
a

381
00:27:20.080 --> 00:27:25.090
very high percentage of recent immigrants for
whom

382
00:27:25.090 --> 00:27:27.250
English is not spoken at home.

383
00:27:27.700 --> 00:27:32.290
And so there's a lot of little challenges
that pop into a community such as

384
00:27:32.290 --> 00:27:37.200
mine. So going to kind of throw

385
00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:42.150
this into into a few different buckets as I
as I talk kind of briefly and

386
00:27:42.330 --> 00:27:47.010
I decided as an example for how we make use
of this to talk a little bit about

387
00:27:47.010 --> 00:27:51.810
homelessness. Now, this is not something that
as an emergency manager was in

388
00:27:51.810 --> 00:27:56.700
my my real realm of of responsibility.

389
00:27:57.180 --> 00:28:02.070
Prior to COVID, we had some impact on it and
that my

390
00:28:02.070 --> 00:28:06.960
duty officer to monitor temperatures and the
like. But like all other urban areas, we have

391
00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:12.300
a situation of of need when it comes to our
homeless

392
00:28:12.300 --> 00:28:14.700
population and what to do with them.

393
00:28:14.700 --> 00:28:19.410
And over the last few years, the the changing
climate, whether you want to call it

394
00:28:19.410 --> 00:28:23.520
anthropomorphic or not, I'll let other people
argue that out. Right now, the climate is

395
00:28:23.520 --> 00:28:27.480
such that we're having greater extremes here
in the Twin Cities

396
00:28:28.530 --> 00:28:29.940
this year alone.

397
00:28:30.180 --> 00:28:34.350
In my own personal weather station, I'm a
geek, so of course I have one.

398
00:28:34.380 --> 00:28:39.210
I had a low temperature of forty six degrees
below zero that was air, not wind

399
00:28:39.480 --> 00:28:41.760
and a high of 106 above.

400
00:28:42.330 --> 00:28:45.990
That's this year in the space of about seven
months.

401
00:28:45.990 --> 00:28:49.230
And so that kind of string can be a big, big
deal.

402
00:28:49.710 --> 00:28:54.660
A couple of years back, when we had the the
so-called polar vortex,

403
00:28:54.900 --> 00:28:59.460
I fell into the homelessness space, if you
will, as a

404
00:28:59.460 --> 00:29:04.410
planner because of the impacts that we were
having a wind chills and the like on

405
00:29:04.410 --> 00:29:08.490
the people living out on the streets and an
inability at the time to deal with it.

406
00:29:10.080 --> 00:29:15.030
As we apply that to our all hazards risk of
things, we recognize

407
00:29:15.030 --> 00:29:19.620
that in addition to dealing with that crisis,
we had the other

408
00:29:19.620 --> 00:29:22.790
crisis of the other hazards that are out
there.

409
00:29:22.800 --> 00:29:26.910
Minnesota has, well, my county has nine
presidential

410
00:29:27.150 --> 00:29:32.070
disaster declarations in the 19 years that
I've been there,

411
00:29:32.070 --> 00:29:33.330
not including COVID.

412
00:29:34.290 --> 00:29:35.910
So I guess that would be 10 now.

413
00:29:36.210 --> 00:29:40.800
And and like a lot of the United States, when
it comes to dealing

414
00:29:40.800 --> 00:29:45.390
with mitigation issues and someone had asked
on the Q&A about, you know,

415
00:29:45.600 --> 00:29:50.040
is the emphasis switching towards trying to
do pre-disaster

416
00:29:50.040 --> 00:29:53.940
mitigation things that the slow answer or the
short answer is yes.

417
00:29:54.090 --> 00:29:56.010
The real answer is slowly.

418
00:29:56.010 --> 00:30:00.900
And as this map shows, you know, just the
adoption of of modern disaster

419
00:30:00.900 --> 00:30:05.670
resilient building codes is lagging behind
where we need it to

420
00:30:05.670 --> 00:30:10.640
be. Well, then came civil unrest,

421
00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:15.500
and in the midst of the COVID issues that we
had here in the

422
00:30:15.500 --> 00:30:20.390
Twin Cities, as everyone is aware, we were at
the

423
00:30:20.390 --> 00:30:22.880
location where Mr Floyd was killed.

424
00:30:23.210 --> 00:30:28.040
That resulted in within about 24 hours and
massive civil unrest,

425
00:30:28.040 --> 00:30:32.060
which I'm sure most of you have experienced
where you live as well. Here in the Twin

426
00:30:32.060 --> 00:30:36.020
Cities, we had more than 1900 separate arson
fires

427
00:30:36.710 --> 00:30:39.200
and in about 48 hours.

428
00:30:39.560 --> 00:30:42.830
It's one of the largest arson investigations
in U.S. history.

429
00:30:43.670 --> 00:30:47.890
What that meant, however, is that
neighborhood required,

430
00:30:47.900 --> 00:30:52.610
required infrastructure was destroyed and not
the kind of infrastructure that we normally

431
00:30:52.610 --> 00:30:56.930
think of. Not just the power lines that were
melted or the or the

432
00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:01.910
the telephone poles that that fell to the
ground, but also things like the

433
00:31:01.910 --> 00:31:06.740
convenience store, the supermarket and the
target and other stores

434
00:31:06.740 --> 00:31:07.790
where food was sold.

435
00:31:07.790 --> 00:31:12.290
And so we created a whole new host of food
deserts across the Twin

436
00:31:12.290 --> 00:31:13.610
Cities area.

437
00:31:13.640 --> 00:31:18.350
A food desert is basically an area where you
can't buy food

438
00:31:18.350 --> 00:31:23.780
within about a one mile radius so that if you
are

439
00:31:23.780 --> 00:31:28.280
poor, you're going to have a very long walk
to be able to buy anything.

440
00:31:28.280 --> 00:31:32.930
And I'm talking about any food, even
convenience store food like Twinkies or a bag

441
00:31:32.930 --> 00:31:35.900
of of something fast can't find them.

442
00:31:36.290 --> 00:31:41.870
And so when you have poor residents who are
unable

443
00:31:41.870 --> 00:31:46.580
or unwilling to leave their homes because of
things going on, such as

444
00:31:46.580 --> 00:31:51.560
pandemics such as civil unrest and couple
that with the

445
00:31:51.560 --> 00:31:56.360
the frightening fact that if they do leave
their home without a car, they're not getting

446
00:31:56.360 --> 00:32:00.920
to a place where they can get food. And with
that food, they have to walk all the way

447
00:32:00.920 --> 00:32:05.360
back. We ran into all kinds of new problems
that we had never experienced

448
00:32:05.360 --> 00:32:10.250
before. Those things exacerbated the economic
impacts

449
00:32:10.250 --> 00:32:11.660
already going on from COVID.

450
00:32:11.670 --> 00:32:16.160
And so what the moral of that story is is
that just because you're dealing with a

451
00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:20.690
catastrophe like COVID, it doesn't mean that
the other hazards stopped for us.

452
00:32:20.690 --> 00:32:25.010
And so the need to cope with these things
continue throughout, and they've been

453
00:32:25.010 --> 00:32:29.840
exacerbated by these changes in our local
climate, probably worldwide climate.

454
00:32:29.850 --> 00:32:33.860
But again, as a local person, I can't I can't
open my eyes that way.

455
00:32:33.890 --> 00:32:37.400
I have to concentrate where I am and on my
residence.

456
00:32:38.150 --> 00:32:42.650
What we discovered during the the time
between the onset of

457
00:32:42.650 --> 00:32:47.420
COVID and today was a massive increase in
unsheltered and

458
00:32:47.420 --> 00:32:50.300
sheltered homelessness in our area.

459
00:32:50.300 --> 00:32:54.110
And the problem with that is that the
distance requirements for, you know, for safe

460
00:32:54.110 --> 00:32:58.760
social distancing meant that at the same time
our numbers were increasing, our bed

461
00:32:58.760 --> 00:33:03.350
sprayed space was decreasing and then those
temperature impacts.

462
00:33:03.650 --> 00:33:04.940
Minnesota has winter.

463
00:33:04.940 --> 00:33:09.800
In case you hadn't never noticed that what we
saw was a massive increase

464
00:33:09.800 --> 00:33:14.390
overall in in our homelessness and that had
huge

465
00:33:14.390 --> 00:33:19.070
impacts. It made it to the point where, you
know, parks were

466
00:33:19.070 --> 00:33:23.240
not tenable for use for recreation because
they were taken over by

467
00:33:23.240 --> 00:33:28.070
encampments, which meant that, you know, if
you're locked down and you're only ability

468
00:33:28.070 --> 00:33:31.190
to get out is to go to your local park in an
urban area.

469
00:33:31.190 --> 00:33:35.960
That's pretty much what you got. You may not
have a backyard. Those parks

470
00:33:35.960 --> 00:33:40.730
weren't safe to be in or weren't open for you
to use if they were safe because

471
00:33:40.730 --> 00:33:42.890
of the various issues going on.

472
00:33:43.370 --> 00:33:47.900
As a result, we had to start looking at ways
of solving that, and for some reason, I have

473
00:33:47.900 --> 00:33:51.710
a strange carryover from that last slide.

474
00:33:51.710 --> 00:33:56.480
But the basic concept of the CDBG program is
to create transformative

475
00:33:56.480 --> 00:34:01.250
impact in the community, particularly in low
and moderate income levels and others.

476
00:34:01.250 --> 00:34:05.870
It was made to help us during this event, and
indeed it

477
00:34:05.870 --> 00:34:10.280
did. I won't go into the details of how that
works if if people have questions, we have an

478
00:34:10.280 --> 00:34:14.480
expert here who can go into more, more
details on that.

479
00:34:15.350 --> 00:34:19.670
Where it became necessary was in our
homelessness issues.

480
00:34:19.670 --> 00:34:24.620
We had to use funding to invent new housing
strategies to invent

481
00:34:24.620 --> 00:34:27.410
ways of finding low and no barrier housing.

482
00:34:27.410 --> 00:34:30.800
For those not familiar with homelessness
speak

483
00:34:32.120 --> 00:34:36.890
something that would discourage a person from
staying in a shelter is referred to as a

484
00:34:36.890 --> 00:34:41.840
barrier. Often those barriers felt to me as a
guy who lives in

485
00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:46.100
the suburbs makes some sense. For instance, I
don't want to necessarily be dealing with the

486
00:34:46.100 --> 00:34:49.130
problems of someone who is drug addicted in
my shelter.

487
00:34:49.340 --> 00:34:53.400
It makes it uncomfortable or even unsafe for
others in that shelter.

488
00:34:53.420 --> 00:34:58.340
But if I don't provide a place where they can
go while they are high,

489
00:34:59.060 --> 00:35:03.470
then they have to live out on the streets in
situations like in this slide.

490
00:35:03.500 --> 00:35:05.330
So it becomes a catch 22.

491
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:06.740
Do I shelter these people?

492
00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:12.260
Or let them freeze if I do shelter them, how
we use some

493
00:35:12.260 --> 00:35:16.790
of the available grant funds to try and solve
that because in the middle of

494
00:35:16.790 --> 00:35:21.200
COVID, for whatever reason, one of our health
care systems had a hospital that they were

495
00:35:21.200 --> 00:35:25.940
shutting down. The Bethesda hospital was
originally

496
00:35:25.940 --> 00:35:28.370
designated to be a COVID only hospital.

497
00:35:28.640 --> 00:35:32.540
It had been scheduled to be shut down. And
when when that didn't

498
00:35:32.660 --> 00:35:37.610
materialize, the building was was mothballed
and we bought it, actually released it

499
00:35:38.570 --> 00:35:43.550
and created new homelessness shelters that at
the same time that we

500
00:35:43.550 --> 00:35:48.140
were using available other funds, for
instance, CARES Act and federal

501
00:35:48.140 --> 00:35:52.730
disaster funds through the FEMA Public
Assistance Program

502
00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:56.860
to find whatever ways we could to get people
off the streets.

503
00:35:56.870 --> 00:36:01.850
It's not only a humanitarian need for the
people who are impacted by

504
00:36:01.850 --> 00:36:03.290
being homeless themselves.

505
00:36:03.320 --> 00:36:07.220
It's also a need for the people in the
community who want to be able to walk from

506
00:36:07.220 --> 00:36:08.690
Point A to point B..

507
00:36:08.720 --> 00:36:12.260
We did what we could, particularly during the
winter.

508
00:36:13.600 --> 00:36:18.310
So that's one way that that that CDBG and
other programs got used in a less

509
00:36:18.310 --> 00:36:23.170
traditional emergency function to try and
solve now that that building

510
00:36:23.170 --> 00:36:27.700
that that hospital building is still open as
a shelter and we had and continue to have

511
00:36:27.700 --> 00:36:32.530
other shelters, some that are owned by the
county, some that are owned by non-profits.

512
00:36:33.100 --> 00:36:37.330
And we were cooperative with our
municipalities and finding ways to manage

513
00:36:37.330 --> 00:36:42.310
encampments so that our decisions were that
encampments are not something that

514
00:36:42.310 --> 00:36:47.230
we want to have in our in our parks and on
the sides

515
00:36:47.230 --> 00:36:51.820
of our highways. Then came BRIC, and as I
said, I was involved

516
00:36:51.820 --> 00:36:56.680
heavily in and working with Congress on
trying to make sure BRIC happened.

517
00:36:57.400 --> 00:37:02.320
And one of the things I think that's
important to understand is that

518
00:37:02.830 --> 00:37:07.250
disasters happen all over, including weather
and climate based disasters.

519
00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:12.280
They're not just coastal issues where I think
we ran into problems.

520
00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:16.690
And here's the part where where I deviate a
little bit from being an

521
00:37:16.690 --> 00:37:21.160
advertisement for a highly successful
program, I think it can be highly

522
00:37:21.160 --> 00:37:26.140
successful. I'm not sure, though, that it was
directed the way that we would have

523
00:37:26.470 --> 00:37:28.150
necessarily preferred.

524
00:37:28.540 --> 00:37:32.200
So here's a map indicating, and I'm not sure
if this is a comprehensive map or if there

525
00:37:32.200 --> 00:37:37.030
were others, but this is this is of showing
where local governments working with their

526
00:37:37.030 --> 00:37:40.330
states made applications for these grants.

527
00:37:41.110 --> 00:37:44.650
And this is a map showing where the grants
ended up.

528
00:37:45.250 --> 00:37:49.630
And so as a resident of the pink area
otherwise referred to as flyover

529
00:37:49.630 --> 00:37:52.840
country, nothing, not a penny.

530
00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:57.160
In fact, in our entire FEMA region, not a
penny. In fact, in several FEMA regions, not

531
00:37:57.160 --> 00:38:01.150
a penny of BRIC money made it out there. I
had the opportunity to sit down with

532
00:38:01.150 --> 00:38:05.530
Administrator Criswell and have a frank
conversation about this.

533
00:38:05.530 --> 00:38:10.210
And as as a person who works with the
National Association of Counties to represent

534
00:38:10.240 --> 00:38:15.130
the the importance to our residents across
the United States, not just in urban

535
00:38:15.130 --> 00:38:18.220
areas like mine, but in the rest of flyover
country.

536
00:38:18.370 --> 00:38:22.600
The idea that BRIC money somehow ended up
concentrated in these

537
00:38:22.600 --> 00:38:24.970
areas was disturbing.

538
00:38:26.500 --> 00:38:31.360
What I'll say is that there's not a single
project funded in these areas that isn't

539
00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:33.490
incredibly deserving of being funded.

540
00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:35.680
All of them are necessary.

541
00:38:36.130 --> 00:38:39.310
The BRIC program is necessary, and these will
make a difference.

542
00:38:39.820 --> 00:38:44.650
What didn't happen is there wasn't a level
playing field, if you will,

543
00:38:44.650 --> 00:38:49.600
and that's because the rest of the country
wasn't in a position to use

544
00:38:49.600 --> 00:38:53.440
the money necessary to hire people to help
write the BRIC applications.

545
00:38:54.130 --> 00:38:59.110
That became a big problem. FEMA has been
able, and this is a

546
00:38:59.110 --> 00:39:02.980
more detailed look at that has really
increased the technical assistance to

547
00:39:02.980 --> 00:39:07.350
counties like mine that don't have the
financial well-being to be able

548
00:39:07.570 --> 00:39:12.130
to go and hire the consultants that we would
love to hire to help us write our next

549
00:39:12.130 --> 00:39:17.090
applications. But there's even issues with
with TA and TA

550
00:39:17.090 --> 00:39:21.610
is technical assistance. And that's where
FEMA folks or FEMA sponsored folks will come

551
00:39:21.610 --> 00:39:24.940
in and actually help us write the
application, almost working like a

552
00:39:24.940 --> 00:39:29.440
consultant. And it's a wonderful program, and
we were really grateful that this is being

553
00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:32.230
emphasized by FEMA, so I'm not complaining
about it.

554
00:39:33.300 --> 00:39:37.620
The problem comes from my end from from the
local end of the state end, and that is we

555
00:39:37.620 --> 00:39:41.760
don't have the capacity to work with the TA
people necessarily.

556
00:39:41.760 --> 00:39:46.320
The vast majority of emergency management
agencies in the United States are one person

557
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:51.000
shops and even part time one person shops, or
they're embedded

558
00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:55.950
lower down into a into an area where they
were traditionally dealing with the

559
00:39:55.980 --> 00:40:00.630
the consequences of the disaster, as opposed
to being positioned to

560
00:40:00.630 --> 00:40:03.480
deal with with pre-disaster mitigation.

561
00:40:03.900 --> 00:40:08.640
And that that policy and political clout
needed to try and convince our

562
00:40:08.640 --> 00:40:12.660
leadership at the state and local level to go
ahead and do something.

563
00:40:12.660 --> 00:40:17.040
I think someone mentioned it was at 83 months
or something like that as the average for a

564
00:40:17.070 --> 00:40:21.690
for a completed progress program of
mitigation

565
00:40:21.780 --> 00:40:25.770
that's beyond the electoral cycle. A lot of
times elected officials are a little

566
00:40:25.770 --> 00:40:29.700
shortsighted on that. They don't want to
invest the time in something that won't be

567
00:40:29.700 --> 00:40:33.840
finished during their their term of office,
and that becomes a problem.

568
00:40:33.840 --> 00:40:38.490
So it's not FEMA's fault that we're not able
to

569
00:40:38.520 --> 00:40:40.590
to do this. It's the local fault.

570
00:40:40.590 --> 00:40:45.570
So what I would say to you is make sure that
you're working with a state that supports

571
00:40:45.570 --> 00:40:49.590
its locals and make sure you're working with
a county that supports its emergency

572
00:40:49.590 --> 00:40:50.840
management program.

573
00:40:50.850 --> 00:40:55.050
And nowadays that a program that not just is
prepared to help

574
00:40:55.650 --> 00:41:00.300
cope with the aftereffects of the disaster,
which may or may not ever

575
00:41:00.300 --> 00:41:04.200
occur, but to mitigate against the effects of
that disaster.

576
00:41:04.200 --> 00:41:09.120
Even though in doing so, when you prevent
something, it's kind of hard to

577
00:41:09.120 --> 00:41:13.920
be able to then prove how valuable that is
because

578
00:41:13.920 --> 00:41:18.630
you can't prove a negative. You can't prove
that by mitigating against the

579
00:41:18.630 --> 00:41:23.610
disaster, you have somehow prevented
something because

580
00:41:23.610 --> 00:41:27.840
that's something never happened. So did you
prevent it or did it just not happen?

581
00:41:27.870 --> 00:41:29.640
It's a giant catch 22.

582
00:41:29.640 --> 00:41:34.380
That is really problematic for us at the
local level and the state level,

583
00:41:34.650 --> 00:41:38.750
particularly at the local level, to try and
cope with where we need to be.

584
00:41:38.760 --> 00:41:43.380
As someone asked in the questions, the
mitigation issues are huge.

585
00:41:43.380 --> 00:41:47.940
That's the future of emergency management
helping to build communities that are able

586
00:41:47.940 --> 00:41:52.680
to cope with the impact, survive that

587
00:41:52.680 --> 00:41:57.540
impact, thrive after that impact and recover
to a whatever normal

588
00:41:57.540 --> 00:42:02.460
looks like. That's where we need to be. We
don't need to be concentrating any longer

589
00:42:02.510 --> 00:42:06.710
on getting people only into some kind of a
shelter after the disaster.

590
00:42:06.720 --> 00:42:10.440
How about we keep those businesses
functioning, those mom and pop shops?

591
00:42:10.770 --> 00:42:12.450
How about we don't flood?

592
00:42:12.480 --> 00:42:14.920
How about we don't have the repetitive
losses?

593
00:42:14.940 --> 00:42:18.630
These are the things that I think FEMA is
starting to work on now. These are the things

594
00:42:18.630 --> 00:42:21.300
that local emergency managers should be
working on.

595
00:42:21.300 --> 00:42:25.560
And, you know, with with the help of folks
like you who are out there, you know, you can

596
00:42:25.560 --> 00:42:29.700
help put the pressure on your own local
government to make sure that they are indeed

597
00:42:29.700 --> 00:42:34.020
supporting that emergency management agency
and that whatever their emergency management

598
00:42:34.020 --> 00:42:38.490
program looks like, is working on issues of
resilience and mitigation, not just disaster

599
00:42:38.490 --> 00:42:39.720
response and recovery.

600
00:42:40.560 --> 00:42:45.360
So that's kind of a quick and short thing and
be happy to answer any questions

601
00:42:45.360 --> 00:42:48.510
or to completely shut up and get my bald head
off the screen.

602
00:42:49.080 --> 00:42:51.150
Bryan, good. Thank you very much.

603
00:42:51.360 --> 00:42:56.340
I've got between what people have submitted
in my own question several hours

604
00:42:56.340 --> 00:42:59.310
worth of of topics we could talk about here
today.

605
00:42:59.310 --> 00:43:02.310
But since this production was only
greenlighted for one episode, not a mini

606
00:43:02.310 --> 00:43:05.130
series, I'm going to jump right into it.
Kevin,

607
00:43:07.170 --> 00:43:12.120
both Eric and Judd mentioned, as did some of
the questioners, the role

608
00:43:12.120 --> 00:43:14.340
of building codes and standards.

609
00:43:15.030 --> 00:43:18.780
What do you view as the role of HUD in that?

610
00:43:18.780 --> 00:43:23.070
I mean, the the the amount of money, the
amount of stick that you have and you

611
00:43:23.070 --> 00:43:28.050
provide billions of dollars and cover mid can
really help drive that.

612
00:43:28.050 --> 00:43:32.970
So what do you view as HUD's role in that in
enhancing building codes

613
00:43:32.970 --> 00:43:33.540
and standards?

614
00:43:33.990 --> 00:43:38.630
Great question. So CDBG does fund a lot of
housing.

615
00:43:38.640 --> 00:43:42.840
You're totally right. It's often used as gap
filler for low income housing tax credit

616
00:43:43.140 --> 00:43:46.020
programs and single family rehab and repair.

617
00:43:47.400 --> 00:43:51.570
We also have, you know, the Federal Housing
Administration, the Home Investment

618
00:43:51.570 --> 00:43:56.430
Partnerships Program, public housing billions
and billions of dollars that's spent

619
00:43:56.430 --> 00:44:00.990
across the country every year on the
construction rehab,

620
00:44:01.680 --> 00:44:06.030
even though an am of housing, right, you
know,

621
00:44:07.410 --> 00:44:11.940
some of some of those programs, and they each
come with their own authorizing

622
00:44:11.940 --> 00:44:15.570
statutes, right? So the legislative
regulatory environment is different for each.

623
00:44:16.440 --> 00:44:20.550
Some programs already require above local
code.

624
00:44:20.580 --> 00:44:22.320
Cdbg is one of them.

625
00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:26.730
If you are building a new house or doing
substantial rehab with

626
00:44:26.760 --> 00:44:32.220
CDBG funding, you have to build to a
specified.

627
00:44:32.280 --> 00:44:37.140
Wide green and in some cases, resilient
building standard, we have

628
00:44:37.140 --> 00:44:41.970
not issued an implementing notice for the $5
billion

629
00:44:42.180 --> 00:44:45.870
that we just received from Congress in
earlier in October.

630
00:44:46.470 --> 00:44:51.000
But I'll point out that that's the first
allocation we've made under this

631
00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:55.680
administration, and the president's made it
very clear that we need to to act on

632
00:44:55.680 --> 00:44:59.610
climate. In addition, across HUD's other
programs,

633
00:45:01.380 --> 00:45:06.060
there is something called the the the minimum
energy standards.

634
00:45:06.270 --> 00:45:10.020
It's required by the Energy Independence and
Security Act of 2007.

635
00:45:10.680 --> 00:45:15.360
There's also the the our floodplain
requirements, which are

636
00:45:15.360 --> 00:45:18.190
in 24 CFR fifty five.

637
00:45:18.220 --> 00:45:22.830
Not that you need to know that, but we do
have, like every agency,

638
00:45:23.100 --> 00:45:28.050
existing floodplain requirements in some
cases, like CDBG KDR, those

639
00:45:28.050 --> 00:45:32.280
floodplain requirements are actually stronger
than they are across the rest of the program.

640
00:45:32.280 --> 00:45:36.960
So we have already implemented the flood risk
management standard in

641
00:45:36.960 --> 00:45:40.260
CDBG. So we require additional free board
there.

642
00:45:41.310 --> 00:45:46.080
So, you know, I guess I could go on about
each individual program

643
00:45:46.080 --> 00:45:50.340
within HUD, but I'll spare you that and just
say, you know, we do have property

644
00:45:50.340 --> 00:45:54.180
requirements. We don't solely rely on local
building codes.

645
00:45:54.840 --> 00:45:58.350
We also have a ton of programs that fund
housing, so it's a little bit different for

646
00:45:58.350 --> 00:46:03.270
each. But if you if you go to HUD.gov
Climate, you'll see our climate action

647
00:46:03.270 --> 00:46:07.290
plan that we've we've committed to
strengthening those requirements across the

648
00:46:07.290 --> 00:46:07.710
board.

649
00:46:10.320 --> 00:46:15.600
Appreciate it. Eric Judd spoke some about the
difficulty

650
00:46:15.600 --> 00:46:20.070
in applying for and running mitigation
programs, and we

651
00:46:20.070 --> 00:46:24.060
discussed The Washington Post article from
the other day that talked about the length of

652
00:46:24.060 --> 00:46:26.210
time it takes to run mitigation program.

653
00:46:26.220 --> 00:46:30.510
Before this, we spoke of the challenges that
both government and private

654
00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:35.880
consultants are having in finding and hiring
qualified mitigation folks.

655
00:46:35.890 --> 00:46:40.380
So there is a need to get more qualified
litigators out there.

656
00:46:40.380 --> 00:46:45.090
But what is it that the federal government is
doing and it is doing specifically to

657
00:46:45.090 --> 00:46:49.740
potentially reduce the complexity of these
programs so that they are easier

658
00:46:49.770 --> 00:46:51.800
to apply for and to administer?

659
00:46:51.810 --> 00:46:55.780
How can we meet in the middle on this and
what can FEMA do?

660
00:46:55.800 --> 00:47:00.510
What can the federal government do to make it
easier for people to understand, utilize and

661
00:47:00.510 --> 00:47:03.690
take advantage of the funds in the way that
Congress hoped they would?

662
00:47:04.920 --> 00:47:09.550
You know, it's a great question, I'll try to
be brief. So the one big change statutorily

663
00:47:09.550 --> 00:47:14.260
with the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of
twenty eighteen, it actually tripled the

664
00:47:14.260 --> 00:47:16.150
management costs that are available.

665
00:47:16.150 --> 00:47:20.680
It doubled the management costs at the state
level, and it made five percent of the

666
00:47:20.680 --> 00:47:25.540
total grant award for the Hazard Mitigation
Grant

667
00:47:25.540 --> 00:47:30.520
Program at the local level. So Congress
essentially opened the door for

668
00:47:30.520 --> 00:47:35.380
increasing the capacity and capability of the
state and local level and to

669
00:47:35.380 --> 00:47:39.790
hire staff or to do planning or work with
environmental

670
00:47:39.970 --> 00:47:43.570
preservation. All those things that are
needed to make a grant program successful, a

671
00:47:43.570 --> 00:47:44.650
grant application.

672
00:47:45.070 --> 00:47:49.750
So Congress did triple those funds so that
the states do

673
00:47:49.750 --> 00:47:53.230
have ability to hire against that.

674
00:47:53.260 --> 00:47:58.090
On the FEMA side, we've done quite a bit
with, you know, our

675
00:47:58.090 --> 00:47:59.620
new our new grant systems.

676
00:47:59.620 --> 00:48:04.510
We have our pre calculated benefits like, for
example, acquisitions that elevations of

677
00:48:04.510 --> 00:48:07.180
homes over 80 percent of them.

678
00:48:07.480 --> 00:48:10.750
You don't even have to do a benefit cost
analysis. So we're constantly looking for

679
00:48:10.750 --> 00:48:14.080
areas where we can find efficiencies

680
00:48:15.550 --> 00:48:20.530
for all those different requirements that are
needed for four grant working with our

681
00:48:20.530 --> 00:48:25.480
state and local partners to again reduce the
complexity and make the make

682
00:48:25.480 --> 00:48:26.620
the process easier.

683
00:48:26.620 --> 00:48:31.570
But certainly on the benefit cost side, we
hear a lot about benefit costs being a

684
00:48:31.570 --> 00:48:35.970
challenge. We've made a lot of progress there
for a lot of grant applications.

685
00:48:36.130 --> 00:48:40.840
The vast majority of them that come in are
take

686
00:48:40.840 --> 00:48:45.550
advantage of that. And for a lot of those
applications, we on average on the timeliness

687
00:48:45.550 --> 00:48:50.470
aspect. On average, it takes about 18 months
for a a grant application

688
00:48:50.470 --> 00:48:54.640
to come to FEMA for the local government
through the state and on average, we turn

689
00:48:54.640 --> 00:48:56.170
that around in four months.

690
00:48:57.250 --> 00:49:00.910
So we're really working hard to try to
shorten that timeline because that is

691
00:49:00.910 --> 00:49:04.870
certainly a challenge right now with a lot of
the mitigation grants that are out there is

692
00:49:04.870 --> 00:49:08.280
we need to we need to get them obligated.

693
00:49:08.290 --> 00:49:12.100
We need to get projects moving and make
communities more resilient.

694
00:49:13.450 --> 00:49:18.370
Thanks, Eric. And a follow on James Bella
asks, and I

695
00:49:18.370 --> 00:49:23.230
will amplify, you know, this storm at great,
great news mitigation program,

696
00:49:23.920 --> 00:49:27.850
but we've had a number of mitigation programs
in the past that have not lived up to their

697
00:49:27.850 --> 00:49:30.880
potential. What have we learned from those?

698
00:49:31.210 --> 00:49:34.540
I won't call them failures, but less than
phenomenal successes.

699
00:49:34.570 --> 00:49:39.460
And how are we incorporating that into the
new programs as we stand them up?

700
00:49:40.820 --> 00:49:41.990
Yeah, we'll storm act.

701
00:49:43.100 --> 00:49:48.050
It's a great question, I mean, right now the
ink was just the president just signed the

702
00:49:48.050 --> 00:49:52.100
bill, so we need to figure out a plan for
implementation. So we will certainly look at

703
00:49:52.100 --> 00:49:56.570
our our past grant programs, pre-disaster
mitigation post disaster

704
00:49:56.570 --> 00:50:00.170
mitigation, repetitive loss grant programs.

705
00:50:00.680 --> 00:50:05.600
We've had programs for our flood mitigation
assistance, our cap

706
00:50:05.600 --> 00:50:09.710
grants that we give the states for floodplain
management, dam safety. So we'll we're going

707
00:50:09.710 --> 00:50:13.880
to look across all of our grant programs and
pull out of those best practices.

708
00:50:13.880 --> 00:50:17.090
And this is different. This is a loan. It's
not a grant.

709
00:50:17.090 --> 00:50:20.090
So the roles between the federal, state and
local government could be a little bit

710
00:50:20.090 --> 00:50:25.070
different. So we need to work with our
federal partners like EPA and

711
00:50:25.490 --> 00:50:26.990
builds a successful program.

712
00:50:29.490 --> 00:50:34.440
Here, Judd, Eric spoke in his

713
00:50:34.440 --> 00:50:38.950
presentation and talked about equity, talked
about the Justice 40

714
00:50:38.970 --> 00:50:43.680
program, you live in a community that could
perhaps benefit from

715
00:50:44.010 --> 00:50:48.570
an increased focus on equity and ensuring
that the federal programs designed to help

716
00:50:48.570 --> 00:50:53.150
mitigate future disasters are equally
accessible and

717
00:50:53.720 --> 00:50:56.310
and be able to achieve by all communities.

718
00:50:56.340 --> 00:50:58.590
What's your perception of the local level?

719
00:50:58.860 --> 00:51:03.330
How that increased focus on equity is going
to impact how you or communities like yours

720
00:51:03.330 --> 00:51:04.830
engage in mitigation activities?

721
00:51:06.210 --> 00:51:11.010
That's an answer that could I could go on and
talk about for the same

722
00:51:11.010 --> 00:51:15.720
full several hours that that you were talking
about before, Bryan? A couple of things.

723
00:51:15.750 --> 00:51:19.320
The first thing really is to try and keep an
eye on

724
00:51:20.070 --> 00:51:24.560
how my communities are, are paid attention
to.

725
00:51:24.570 --> 00:51:27.980
I don't know if that's good grammar or not an
example.

726
00:51:27.990 --> 00:51:31.980
The night that Joplin was hit by their
tornado

727
00:51:32.700 --> 00:51:37.170
north Minneapolis in the ghetto in the middle
of the ghetto, was hit by a

728
00:51:37.170 --> 00:51:39.990
tornado as well, and most people never heard
about it.

729
00:51:41.310 --> 00:51:45.720
Many of the complexes or apartment buildings
that were damaged were never rebuilt.

730
00:51:45.720 --> 00:51:50.070
Because the owners were absentee landlords
who just simply abandoned the property, they

731
00:51:50.070 --> 00:51:54.420
weren't worth fixing, so they didn't even
make the insurance claim. That led to

732
00:51:54.450 --> 00:51:59.250
enhanced homelessness and, you know, and
years of recovery out

733
00:51:59.250 --> 00:52:04.200
there. So, so making programs that are able
to affect that has

734
00:52:04.200 --> 00:52:10.440
been a boon and making better use of CDBG
funds

735
00:52:10.440 --> 00:52:14.220
as well as D.R funds is huge to dealing with
that.

736
00:52:14.550 --> 00:52:18.890
We also have to pay attention to the details
of policies, for instance, you know,

737
00:52:18.960 --> 00:52:21.150
in enhancing building codes.

738
00:52:21.150 --> 00:52:25.140
And I had a slide saying, you know, I'm in
favor of it, but we have to keep in mind that

739
00:52:25.140 --> 00:52:29.130
when we change the building codes, it has a
disparate effect on people who are living in

740
00:52:29.130 --> 00:52:30.360
substandard housing.

741
00:52:31.230 --> 00:52:32.730
There's there's a great cost.

742
00:52:32.730 --> 00:52:37.230
They may not be able to bear that cost if
there is a landlord who

743
00:52:37.440 --> 00:52:42.330
pours a lot of money into that structure to
rebuild it to the new code.

744
00:52:42.870 --> 00:52:47.730
Then there may be an unwillingness to

745
00:52:47.730 --> 00:52:52.680
keep that as lower income housing because
they need to recover or they see that

746
00:52:52.680 --> 00:52:54.870
they can get a greater profit.

747
00:52:54.870 --> 00:52:57.820
So looking for all of those things is a huge
issue.

748
00:52:57.840 --> 00:53:02.070
And then the last one, and I think someone
had a comment out there as saying, you know,

749
00:53:02.070 --> 00:53:05.100
people will do things when they don't have
ownership.

750
00:53:05.310 --> 00:53:08.710
Well, you know, there's a lot of people that
there were questions here about, you know,

751
00:53:08.730 --> 00:53:10.710
what does these letters mean?

752
00:53:10.710 --> 00:53:13.020
What, what, what are all these acronyms mean?

753
00:53:13.170 --> 00:53:17.310
I would say that the vast majority of the
American population has absolutely no idea of

754
00:53:17.310 --> 00:53:22.290
what these programs are, that they exist and
that they can benefit them. I would say

755
00:53:22.290 --> 00:53:26.400
that there's a large number of our elected
officials who don't have much idea of what

756
00:53:26.400 --> 00:53:28.190
they can can do as well.

757
00:53:28.200 --> 00:53:33.060
And the end result of that, that lack of
knowledge is a lack of ownership and

758
00:53:33.060 --> 00:53:34.530
willingness to go out there.

759
00:53:34.530 --> 00:53:39.120
So when we're dealing with communities like I
serve, you know,

760
00:53:39.120 --> 00:53:44.010
and it's not a question of how one votes or
what party

761
00:53:44.010 --> 00:53:48.690
one belongs to, it's a simple matter of the
fact that I got 600000 people who, if the

762
00:53:48.690 --> 00:53:52.350
disaster happens, are going to get impacted
rather quickly. And I have to make sure that

763
00:53:52.350 --> 00:53:56.800
all of them, not just some of them, are able
to recover from that.

764
00:53:56.850 --> 00:54:01.380
The way to do that is to put programs in
advance mitigation programs, resilience

765
00:54:01.380 --> 00:54:05.250
programs that can make them less likely to
suffer greatly.

766
00:54:05.880 --> 00:54:10.200
People like me, you know, in the middle class
and above, you know, if I have a disaster, I

767
00:54:10.200 --> 00:54:14.400
have. I have good insurance. I have some
money in the bank. I have my three days of

768
00:54:14.400 --> 00:54:15.960
food and water saved.

769
00:54:16.350 --> 00:54:20.670
The majority of the people I serve don't have
today's food and water, so they're not going

770
00:54:20.670 --> 00:54:23.790
to build a kit. They're not going to have
three days of food and water. They're not

771
00:54:23.790 --> 00:54:27.240
going to have one hundred dollars in cash,
just lying around.

772
00:54:27.540 --> 00:54:30.490
They're going to be lucky if they can get
dinner tonight.

773
00:54:30.510 --> 00:54:34.830
So there's a lot that's beyond the emergency
managers

774
00:54:34.830 --> 00:54:36.690
capabilities of dealing with.

775
00:54:37.320 --> 00:54:42.300
But these programs, you know, as I'm more
than happy to criticize programs, but also

776
00:54:42.340 --> 00:54:47.100
to say these programs that are out there are
making a huge difference in the ability

777
00:54:47.100 --> 00:54:52.080
of urban areas in particular to to become
slowly

778
00:54:52.470 --> 00:54:53.400
more resilient.

779
00:54:55.130 --> 00:54:59.210
Thanks Judd. Ken and Eric, or either one of
you or both of you

780
00:55:00.590 --> 00:55:05.570
Judd touched on it as as costs of building
increases and

781
00:55:06.590 --> 00:55:11.090
compliance code could do that, but also
inflation as we're seeing now

782
00:55:11.570 --> 00:55:15.650
increased cost and material increase of cost
of labor. All of that is going to increase

783
00:55:15.650 --> 00:55:20.180
housing costs in an area in an environment
where costs are

784
00:55:20.180 --> 00:55:22.550
increasing, but salaries are not.

785
00:55:23.180 --> 00:55:27.710
People will have to make choices, and one of
the choices that people will make is to drop

786
00:55:27.710 --> 00:55:32.690
or reduce their insurance coverage. And that
has the effect of shifting

787
00:55:32.690 --> 00:55:37.490
the burden to government the next time a
disaster

788
00:55:37.490 --> 00:55:41.390
hits in their community and that's going to
come out of our response and recovery costs.

789
00:55:41.420 --> 00:55:45.530
Are there conversations at the highest level
of HUD and FEMA

790
00:55:45.950 --> 00:55:50.450
about getting ahead of that curve,
recognizing that if people are dropping

791
00:55:50.450 --> 00:55:54.200
insurance, if people are not building storms,
that it's simply going to hit the federal

792
00:55:54.200 --> 00:55:56.300
taxpayer on a different funding stream?

793
00:55:56.300 --> 00:56:00.770
And what can we do in our mitigation programs
to help off set that

794
00:56:01.520 --> 00:56:05.450
potential from happening? Are those kind of
conversations happening? And if so, what are

795
00:56:05.450 --> 00:56:06.890
some potential outcomes of that?

796
00:56:12.380 --> 00:56:15.730
It sure, I'll take a crack at that a little
bit, I think that conversation comes up at

797
00:56:15.730 --> 00:56:19.420
FEMA around flood insurance, certainly.

798
00:56:21.410 --> 00:56:26.150
You know, Congress is considering the bills
in front of them right now for

799
00:56:26.150 --> 00:56:31.100
the reauthorization of the National Flood
Insurance Program and affordability,

800
00:56:31.190 --> 00:56:35.720
like whether it ends up being like a voucher
or however Congress decides to

801
00:56:35.720 --> 00:56:40.520
tackle affordability is something something
on their plate for consideration.

802
00:56:40.520 --> 00:56:42.530
But yeah, to the larger.

803
00:56:42.710 --> 00:56:46.940
The larger question is insurance insurance
coverage for public buildings for

804
00:56:46.940 --> 00:56:49.190
schools is dropped.

805
00:56:49.580 --> 00:56:54.470
You know that that becomes something that's
uninsurable and then would potentially if

806
00:56:54.470 --> 00:56:59.330
there was a disaster, obviously we would come
in and be

807
00:56:59.330 --> 00:57:03.740
required under our programs to to help help
mitigate those structures.

808
00:57:03.740 --> 00:57:08.720
So I know a lot of communities are looking at
catastrophic bonds and other other means

809
00:57:08.720 --> 00:57:11.500
of trying to bridge that gap.

810
00:57:11.510 --> 00:57:15.800
But I think on the flood insurance side is
where a lot of the conversation, you know, is

811
00:57:15.800 --> 00:57:19.850
happening in terms of if someone can't afford
their flood insurance policy,

812
00:57:20.480 --> 00:57:21.530
what kind of.

813
00:57:22.880 --> 00:57:26.180
Again, I'm in the executive branch of
government, not legislator, but I think

814
00:57:26.180 --> 00:57:30.770
that's a legislative question as to what how
Congress wants to address that

815
00:57:30.770 --> 00:57:31.460
question.

816
00:57:32.210 --> 00:57:33.300
Yeah. Understood.

817
00:57:33.320 --> 00:57:34.460
Kevin, anything to add to that.

818
00:57:35.670 --> 00:57:39.560
I mean, a number of HUD housing programs by
law

819
00:57:40.130 --> 00:57:44.270
require the owners to carry flood insurance
if they're located in the floodplain.

820
00:57:46.050 --> 00:57:49.920
I mean, we don't have purview over the entire
housing market in the United States, though,

821
00:57:49.920 --> 00:57:54.000
which I think is going to be the major of the
question. But if you have an FHA loan and

822
00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:57.030
you're you're in the floodplain, you're
required to carry flood insurance. If you're

823
00:57:57.030 --> 00:58:01.710
a public housing provider and you have a
legacy public housing

824
00:58:01.710 --> 00:58:05.130
development that's somehow still in the
floodplain like you would, you would be

825
00:58:05.130 --> 00:58:09.660
required to carry insurance as well. If
you're building new housing, though, we have

826
00:58:09.660 --> 00:58:12.390
additional requirements to mitigate that risk
in the first place.

827
00:58:13.290 --> 00:58:15.390
Ok, thanks, Kevin. All right.

828
00:58:15.390 --> 00:58:19.350
Well, everyone, I still have a whole page
full of questions to ask and a screen full

829
00:58:19.350 --> 00:58:24.150
here, but unfortunately our hour has come to
an end. And so I would like to thank our

830
00:58:24.150 --> 00:58:27.240
panelists. Kevin, Eric, Judd, thank you very
much.

831
00:58:27.270 --> 00:58:30.870
JQ Thank you. Thank you for putting this
together for everyone.

832
00:58:30.900 --> 00:58:34.800
The recording This will be available on the
NIBS's website later this week.

833
00:58:34.800 --> 00:58:39.450
I encourage you to download, get the link and
send off those who weren't able to join us

834
00:58:39.450 --> 00:58:44.250
today. And if you would please give my
panelists here a virtual

835
00:58:44.250 --> 00:58:47.730
round of applause and we will see you all
down the road. Thank you very much.