Homeowners hope for a new program that moves faster

years for local governments to apply for and get the FEMA grants, meaning that some homeowners might rebuild — usually with federal assistance — before taking the buyouts. Wright said he wants Houston homeowners to be able to consider buyouts instead of rebuilding.

“On these multiple-loss properties, I’m working with my team and lawyers on ways I can move that to the front,” he said. “The point is, I’m not going to pay someone redo their house, then re-buy it.”

Wright said the effort to accelerate the buyouts was spurred, at least in part, by a Houston homeowner who called his office late one evening last week. The homeowner, whom he did not identify, had returned to her house after the Harvey flood and called to ask for the federal government to buy her property.

Houston homeowners and advocates are hoping FEMA will roll out a program unlike any yet seen in the U.S., one that buys more houses, spends more money and does it faster.

Floods have inundated so many Houstonand again, some three or more times since Tropical Storm Allison hit in 2001, Rice University professor and environmental attorney Jim Blackburn said. Blackburn estimated Harvey flooded some 150,000 homes and as many as 50,000 might need buyouts.

“We need to identify these areas and remove these homes from harm’s way,” Blackburn wrote this week in a white paper on the topic. “In order to do this, there will need to be a massive buyout program.”

James Wade, the property acquisition manager at the Harris County Flood Control District, said the district was in conversations with FEMA about how to get money for buyouts faster. After Hurricane Ike in 2008, it took about six months for the buyout grants to move through the system.

“What we’re trying to find out is if there’s any way to avoid that process,” Wade said, “and go straight to ‘Can we just have anal location for funding’, because we know we have the need.” FEMA is receiving thousands of Harvey claims and paying out millions of dollars every day. By the end of Wednesday, more than 80,000 Texans had filed claims, and the flood insurance program had issued about $76 million in advance payments.

“And we’re not done yet,” Wright said.

The Harris County Flood Control District is putting together a $20 million proposal for 100 buyouts in the county, just a fraction of the 3,300 properties the district says are at risk.

Target neighborhoods include several near the San Jacinto River and Humble; past buyout programs have picked homes along White Oak Bayou, Hunting Bayou and Greens Bayou. Purchasing all of the property on its priority list would cost $600million.

The city of Houston, which has historically shied away from buyouts, is now discussing them with FEMA, Mayor Sylvester Turner said. But if the city buys out flood-prone apartment buildings, the problem then becomes finding affordable housing for the residents, many of them low income, Turner said.

“There will need to be a massive buyout program.” Jim Blackburn, environmental attorney and Rice professor