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The City of Houston and Harris County will get more time to dole out Hurricane Harvey relief funding after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development granted a two-year extension on Wednesday.
The extension will enable the City of Houston and Harris County to work with the Texas General Land Office (GLO) to find people affected by the massive storm who didn’t receive the help they should have post-storm.
Hurricane Harvey caused an estimated $125 billion in damage to the state. The Category 4 hurricane flooded much of low-lying Houston and ravaged homes, buildings and businesses alike. Among the numerous damaged buildings were four apartment complexes built on flood plains — Appian Way Apartments, Spring Village Apartments, Monticello Square Apartments and Biscayne at City View. In 2021, the City of Houston moved to buy and demolish the apartments.
GLO Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, speaking before the Houston City Council on Wednesday, explained that by law, some of the recovery money should've been provided to cover moving expenses, deposits and rent increases after affected residents were displaced. According to the GLO, about 900 households were displaced and were not offered relocation assistance under former mayor Sylvester Turner’s tenure.
"We must find these tenants from these four developments and pay them the relocation assistance they were owed," Buckingham said. "The relocation assistance will provide much-needed financial stability for these families that are already struggling."
The General Land Office, the City of Houston and Harris County leaders will work to find these residents and get them the relief they are owed. She’s also getting help from people in the community. Outreach will take place at schools, churches, food banks and community organizations throughout the city, along with Houston Public Works.
"With the help of faith leaders, and influential community advocates, to reach out to hundreds of Houstonians, who were living in these apartment complexes,” Buckingham said.
There’s another component of recovery efforts that will also be partially relaunched.
Houston received more than $1 billion in disaster recovery dollars from HUD to build 120 houses damaged in the hurricane. The city purchased three sections of land with intentions to develop homes to assist relocation efforts, but the efforts stalled and the city was prepared to sell all three parcels.
With the extension of funding, they will now keep one of the pieces of land with intentions to build 250 homes at affordable rates for people who qualify.