U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt, R-

Haleyville, Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, and Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, said a disaster relief formula used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development unintentionally diverts recovery assistance away from rental housing.

They support an amendment offered Wednesday that would revise the method HUD uses to sample storm damaged housing for funding to provide equitable treatment for rentals.

“A key to Tuscaloosa's continuing economic recovery will be restoring the lost supply of housing,” Bachus said.

Significant numbers of homes were damaged or destroyed by the April 2011 tornado in Tuscaloosa. Especially hard hit was the Alberta area, which had hundreds of rental homes.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said Thursday that the HUD recovery formula uses owner-occupied housing to determine funding. But in Tuscaloosa's case, 71 percent of the damaged or destroyed homes were rentals, resulting in an under representation of Tuscaloosa's needs, he said.

HUD said Tuscaloosa's unmet housing needs in October were $56.3 million, but in January the unmet needs were $3.9 million. HUD said Jefferson County's unmet needs were $8.8 million in both October and January.

The formula resulted in a grant amount to Tuscaloosa of $16.6 million.

“We believe Tuscaloosa is entitled to between $30 and $36 million,” Maddox said. “If that is the case, we're looking at an additional $15 to $20 million.”

In one census tract, 463 residences were damaged but only 23 were owner-occupied, Maddox said. By HUD's calculation, 2.2 percent of the residences had severe damage, which equaled 10 units, and that determined needs.

“Tuscaloosa was unique because most of these were rentals,” he said. “The majority are not students, these are the working people of our city and under the HUD methodology, they were discounted.”

Bachus spokesman Tim Johnson said Bachus and Sewell supported the amendment, which procedurally wasn't accepted.

“It will take time to change the formula prospectively,” Johnson said. “There was a quirk in the formula, and it's sort of an unusual case in Tuscaloosa where substantial damage was done to rental housing that they used for sampling.

“The sampling underrepresented what happened in Tuscaloosa, particularly in one housing tract,” Johnson said.

“It is strictly owner-occupied as a tool that determines unmet needs,” Maddox said. “The owner-occupied areas were in many cases not as seriously damaged and returned fairly quickly.”

Bachus and Sewell now represent Tuscaloosa County in Congress. Under new redistricting, Aderholt and Sewell will represent Tuscaloosa County in January. Aderholt will be on November ballots in the newly drawn 4th Congressional District, which includes part of Tuscaloosa County.

“Restoring the city's housing options is critical to Tuscaloosa's economic growth and development,” Sewell said.

“This flawed policy is ultimately hindering Tuscaloosa's ongoing recovery efforts,” Aderholt said. “HUD needs to come up with a real public-

private partnership policy which meets the needs of those left homeless by the storms in Tuscaloosa.”

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