Alabama Governor Seeks More Tornado Aid for Tuscaloosa

Alabama’s governor has been in Washington to try to secure more money for tornado recovery in Tuscaloosa.

Gov. Robert Bentley says he met with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan, of Wednesday. They talked about Bentley’s concerns that HUD’s formula caused hundreds of rental homes that were damaged or destroyed in Tuscaloosa to be excluded from the recovery assistance funding. Bentley said he’s also wrote a letter to the president.

Bentley said HUD’s formula counts rental properties only if they are located in a census tract where more than half of the owner-occupied homes were damaged. He said that caused the Alberta area that the president visited on April 29, 2011, to be excluded, even though 440 rental units were damaged.

Bentley said HUD promised to consider the issue.