1. (a) General provisions. Assistance under this fund is available to units of general local government for eligible activities under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, Title I, as amended, for the alleviation of a disaster situation. To receive assistance under this program category, the situation to be addressed with TxCDBG funds must be both unanticipated and beyond the control of the local government. For example, the collapse of a municipal water distribution system due to lack of regular maintenance does not qualify. If the same situation was caused by a tornado or flood, the community could apply for disaster relief funds. An applicant may not apply for funding to construct public facilities that did not exist prior to the occurrence of the disaster, except in response to a governor's drought disaster declaration covering the area that would benefit from the project activities under the following conditions:

   1. (1) the new public water system facilities to be constructed must provide a new or improved source of water for the project beneficiaries;
   2. (2) the new public water system facilities are not a redundant or backup water supply;
   3. (3) the new public water system facilities are not temporary in nature; however, they may be initially temporary in nature if constructed to meet a disaster need if they will remain in place and become a permanent facility that is used for meeting demand under non-disaster conditions;
   4. (4) as evidenced by a public declaration, the local governing body must have determined that an adequate water supply may not be available to the project beneficiaries within the next 180 days thereby creating a serious and immediate threat to the health or welfare of the community;
   5. (5) the public water system providing water to the city or county residential users for the proposed project must have implemented either the first or second most restrictive response stage under its Drought Contingency Plan; and
   6. (6) a professional engineer selected by the applicant must certify in the application that the proposed new facilities that would be funded with TxCDBG funds would meet the criteria specified in this rule.

2. (b) Other requirements. TxCDBG disaster relief funds will not be provided under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program unless the Office receives satisfactory evidence that any property to be purchased was not constructed or purchased by the current owner after the property site location was officially mapped and included in a designated flood plain area. Additionally, in disaster relief situations, the TxCDBG dollars are to be viewed as gap financing or funds of last resort. In other words, the community may only apply to the Office for funding of those activities for which local funds are not available, i.e., the entity has less than six months of unencumbered general operations funds available in its balance as evidenced by the last available audit as required by state statute, or assistance from other sources is not available. TxCDBG will consider whether funds under an existing TxCDBG contract are available to be reallocated to address the situation. TxCDBG may prioritize throughout the program year the use of Disaster Relief assistance funds based on the type of assistance or activity under considerations and may allocate funding throughout the program year based on assistance categories. Assistance under the disaster relief fund is provided only if one of the following has occurred:

   1. (1) The President has issued a federal disaster declaration; or
   2. (2) The governor has declared a state of disaster or emergency.
3. (c) Funding cycle. Funds for disaster relief projects will be awarded throughout the program year in response to disaster situations. The application for assistance must be submitted no later than 12 months from the date of the presidential declaration of a major disaster or governor's declaration of a state of disaster or emergency.
4. (d) Selection procedures. As soon as an area qualifies for disaster relief assistance, the Office works with the local government, the governor's office, and the Emergency Management Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety to determine where TxCDBG funds can best be utilized. The Office then works with the unit of local government selected for funding to negotiate a contract. A unit of general local government cannot receive a disaster relief grant and an urgent need grant to address problems caused by the same natural disaster situation. In no instance will a unit of general local government receive more than one disaster relief grant to address a single occurrence of a natural disaster.
5. (e) Funding priority. The Texas CDBG program prioritizes the use of the Disaster Relief Fund for projects in which there are federal declarations that provide the federally required 25 percent match portion of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) approved budget covering approved repair and restoration activities. Priority is based on the date of the presidential declaration. For presidential declarations, Disaster Relief Funds are only used to assist eligible applicants in meeting the match requirements for FEMA Public Assistance categories A and C through G and NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection Program requiring a match for eligible costs associated with repairs and restoration of disaster-related infrastructure activities. The funding priority is the match requirements associated with FEMA Public Assistance categories A and C through G for repair or restoration rather than mitigation. Equal priority is given for the match requirements for projects in categories A and C through G addressing imminent threats to public safety. Federal hazard mitigation projects would be a lower funding priority and are not eligible under the provisions listed in this subsection. Applications must be submitted no later than 12 months from the presidential declaration. However, the Disaster Relief Fund will not necessarily retain the priority for the entire 12-month period. Disaster Relief Funds can only be used for repairs and restoration of damaged items in presidential declarations to pre-disaster conditions in design, function, and capacity.

Source Note:The provisions of this §30.4 adopted to be effective December 23, 1991, 16 TexReg 7008; amended to be effective September 11, 1992, 17 TexReg 5951; amended to be effective October 13, 1993, 18 TexReg 6641; amended to be effective November 24, 1998, 23 TexReg 11795; amended to be effective September 17, 2000, 25 TexReg 9216; transferred effective October 31, 2001, as published in the Texas Register August 2, 2002, 27 TexReg 6835; amended to be effective January 26, 2003, 28 TexReg 537; amended to be effective May 4, 2004, 29 TexReg 4144; amended to be effective November 23, 2004, 29 TexReg 10715; amended to be effective March4, 2007, 32 TexReg 829; amended to be effective March 16, 2009, 34 TexReg 1799; amended to be effective May 8, 2011, 36 TexReg 2726; transferred effective October 1, 2011, as published in the Texas Register December 23, 2011, 36 TexReg 9011; amended to be effective June 21, 2012, 37 TexReg 4409.