Home Access Program

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

Boulder County experienced an historic flood in September 2013 resulting in catastrophic damage to homes, businesses, and properties, as well as massive debris deposition on roadways, in streams, and on public and private property. Boulder County’s mountainous geography presents unique flood recovery challenges for our residents living in the canyons for whom the flood destroyed the bridges, roads, and driveways that provided sole access to their homes. Nearly 200 residential accesses across Boulder County were damaged in the flood, including 75 bridges that were completely destroyed. The Boulder County Home Access Program was created to respond to county mountain residents’ unique need for flood recovery assistance to restore access to their homes. This program is the first disaster recovery program to utilize Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds to provide federal grants to residents for the rebuilding of bridges, driveways, and roads that serve private residences. At the time of writing, Home Access staff has awarded more than $2.7M in grants to Boulder County’s flood-affected families since the program was launched in 2014, and will continue to issue awards and complete projects through December of 2017.