Advocates warn Harvey funding lacking

Texas Land Office is using incomplete data to supply hurricane relief funds, experts say

The state is relying on a flawed methodology to distribute Hurricane Harvey housing aid that risks leaving more than $1 billion of unmet needs for low- and moderate-income Texans, particularly renters, in Houston’s Fifth Ward, greater Greenspoint and east Houston, according to housing advocacy groups.

As the Texas General Land Office prepares to divvy up more than $5 billion in aid for homeowners and renters, a coalition of advocacy groups says it already sees flaws that will leave too many people who need help without adequate assistance to get back in their homes.

“There is a fundamental bias in the GLO’s methodology that means thousands of Texans of modest means will not be able to go back home and recover,” said Charlie Duncan, of Texas Housers, an advocacy group focused on low-income communities.

Flaw in the system

At the heart of the problem is how the Federal Emergency Management Agency assesses damage when officials first go through communities ravaged by storms. FEMA focuses too much on property loss and doesn’t collect much damage on the actual people who are affected, Duncan said.

Duncan said 69 percent of low-income homes were rejected for FEMA aid and determined not to have unmet needs, but just 41 percent of higher-income homes were found not to have unmet needs. He said GLO is relying on those unmet-need figures from FEMA, even though Duncan said he and others question that data.

The bottom line, he said, is that thousands of low income families — both renters and homeowners — won’t get the assistance they need, he said.

GLO officials say they have little choice but to rely on federal rules set by FEMA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to assure the state gets the maximum amount of funding. Land Commissioner George P. Bush has repeatedly warned that Texas’s overall unmet needs will be well in excess of $100 billion.

The warning from the housing advocates comes just days before GLO closes the comment period on its proposed action plan for the first $5 billion coming to the state through HUD’s community block grant program for disasters. On Tuesday, GLO will begin responding to comments from the public with hopes of sending it all back to HUD for a final review. That review historically can take up to five months, but Bush’s office has been pushing HUD to speed up that process.

Barriers to aid

Texas Housers said Port Arthur faces the most unmet needs for renters, with nearly $13 million of under-counted needs. Houston’s Kashmere Gardens, greater Greenspoint and east Houston have the next three highest amounts of unmet needs according to the Texas Housers report. Those three areas combined have almost $24 million of unmet needs for renters that the state could be on the verge of missing.

And there are other barriers for low-income families, said Rachel Zummo, an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, or TRLA, that is working with Harvey survivors.

“Those obstacles can lead to low-income people not getting as much assistance from FEMA as they need to recover,” Zummo said.

When lower-income people are displaced, they can have a harder time arranging inspections of their old apartments to assure their losses are properly accounted for. In addition, lower-income people often don’t have access to lawyers and advocates who can help appeal decisions that can help them get the help they needed even after they are first turned down for aid, she said.