SUBJECT: An agreement for the City of Houston to receive funds from the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) for reimbursement of the cost to complete the elevation of 42 flood-prone homes.
RECOMMENDATION: (Summary) Approve an ordinance authorizing an agreement for the City of Houston to receive funds from the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) for the reimbursement of the cost to complete the elevation of 42 flood prone homes.
SPECIFIC EXPLANATION: As applicant on a FEMA awarded Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) Grant, Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) has agreed to reimburse the City of Houston, as sub-applicant, up to $14,846,975.92 for the elevation of 42 pre-selected homes.
In 2015, the City of Houston elected to submit a grant application for the annual FEMA call for the FMA grant program. The grant program makes funds available nationwide to address mitigation of flooded properties that hold flood insurance policies through the National Flood Insurance Program. While Houston has not submitted applications in prior years, the events of the Memorial Day 2015 flood prompted an interest from the City to submit for the 2015 cycle.
Homeowners volunteered to participate in this program prior to application. Depending on the National Flood Insurance Program loss history of each property at the time of the grant application, participating homeowners will be awarded between 75% and 100% of eligible home elevation project costs. The remaining portion of the home elevation project costs are the responsibility of the individual homeowners and the City. The individual homeowners share of the costs totals $411,841.03
The City’s costs for administering the grant and project management of the elevation projects are reimbursable with the exception of $15,083.81 of the estimated total $748,698.81 administrative and project management costs.
The period of performance for this grant is 3 years from the effective date of the contract.
The City of Houston will use the grant funds to pay the eligible costs to elevate 42 pre-selected homes or pre-selected alternate properties. Eligible Activities include design, permitting, construction and project management.
This project will result in the mitigation of 31 Severe Repetitive Loss (SRL) properties, 10 Repetitive Loss (RL) properties and 1 Non-Repetitive Loss property.
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Dale A. Rudick, P.E., Director
Department of Public Works and Engineering