HUD Gives $4.6-Million Relief Grant to Santa Clarita

This city will receive the fourth-largest earthquake recovery grant given by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to municipalities hammered by the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake.

The $4.6-million HUD grant can be used to repair quake damage not paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Small Business Administration or similar government funding sources. Roads, housing and community programs are eligible for the revenues.

“They don’t want dual funding of projects, (but) this money was given to deal with earthquake-related damage to the city,” said Vyto Adomaitis, head of the city’s federal Community Development Block Grant program.

FEMA provides assistance to homeowners and renters and, through its public assistance program, funds repairs of schools, sewers, hospitals and municipal facilities such as Santa Clarita’s damaged City Hall building. The SBA offers low-interest loans to residents and merchants.

The three larger HUD recovery grants were $99 million to Los Angeles; $7.9 million to Los Angeles County; and $5.5 million to Simi Valley.

All grants are part of the $9.1 billion in federal earthquake relief funds approved earlier this year by Congress and President Clinton, Adomaitis said.

City officials requested federal assistance after the 6.8-magnitude quake, which caused about $244.4 million in damage to the Santa Clarita Valley, but did not ask for a predetermined amount of money.

“There will be a process to identify which projects and areas we want to spend this on,” Adomaitis said. “We didn’t apply for anything specifically.”

Those projects will be reviewed by the City Council and forwarded to HUD.

“I think it’s great we are able to work on housing and use this money to help people who have had personal tragedies,” said Santa Clarita Mayor George Pederson.

Pederson credited the large grant awarded to efforts by city employees, both during the application process and in general, for reminding agencies that many cities outside Northridge were damaged by the quake.

“We did our homework,” said Pederson. “We let it be known that we had suffered some damage and we needed some help.

“There’s a tendency to concentrate on harder hit sites with more damage. Sometimes, some of us get left out. This time, that didn’t happen.”