MAINE MONITOR • November 25, 2023
Small cities and towns face many challenges when it comes to applying for grants, including being unaware of the programs in the first place. The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant, which started in 2020, is by far the largest of FEMA’s non-disaster grants, with $2.1 billion in competitive funding available nationwide during the 2022 grant cycle. Maine, however, got less than 0.5% of the 2022 BRIC funding. Other states have been far more successful applying for funds. Some have submitted hundreds of project applications per grant cycle, often with the aid of outside consultants – help that’s financially out of reach for many smaller states. “There’s more funding than there’s ever been before, but it’s not enough for all the adaptation and resilience work that must occur for us to be ready for the next 60 or 80 years,” Victoria Salinas, FEMA associate administrator for resilience.