HUD - HoustonNewMedia.org

If you managed to watch Harris County Commissioners Court yesterday, near the end you saw a lively and somewhat confusing discussion of flood mitigation funding. See the video at approximately 6:38:10. Agenda Item 249 was a request by Adrian Garcia to discuss disbursement of the $750 million in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation funds allocated […]

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March 18, 2022 Reduce Flooding

HUD Approves $750 Million to Harris County for Flood Mitigation

Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved the Texas General Land Office’s (GLO) amended plan for Community Development Block Grant Mitigation (CDBG-MIT). The amended plan allocates $750 million in funding for Harris County and an $488 million to the Houston-Galveston Area Council for additional mitigation projects in the region. The funds […]

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December 29, 2021 Reduce Flooding

Equity Myth Buster: “Rich Neighborhoods Get All the Flood-Mitigation Funding”

A myth being promulgated in the Harris County Courthouse and certain low-income watersheds these days goes something like this: The FEMA Benefit/Cost Ratio used to rank grant applications for flood-mitigation projects favors high-dollar homes. That disadvantages poor, inner-city neighborhoods compared to affluent suburbs. Therefore, poor neighborhoods get no help and the rich neighborhoods get it […]

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December 16, 2021 Reduce Flooding

Biden Orders Simplification of Disaster Relief

On December 13 – 1567 days after Hurricane Harvey – President Biden issued an executive order to improve disaster relief by the federal government. The order covers a range of other government services, too. It aims to improve service service to citizens with the ultimate goals of improving customer satisfaction and restoring trust in government. […]

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November 3, 2021 Reduce Flooding

Montgomery County Holding Three Meetings for Flood Victims Interested in Buyouts

Morgan Lumbley, Montgomery County’s Disaster Recovery Manager, will hold community outreach meetings in Spring, Conroe and Splendora in the next 10 days to explain buyout options for flood victims. See specifics about times, dates and places in the poster below. The primary purpose of the meetings will be to explain FEMA’s 2021 Flood Mitigation Assistance […]

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October 6, 2021 Reduce Flooding

Special City Meeting Thursday At 2 PM Will Address Multi-Family Housing Flap

City of Houston called a special joint committee meeting for Thursday, October 7, at 2PM between Budget & Fiscal Affairs and Housing and Community Affairs. Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin will chair the meeting. The agenda is scant. It entails a Housing and Community Development “Financial Update” with three speakers: Keith Bynam, Deputy Director, Housing […]

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September 22, 2021 Reduce Flooding

Blowup Between Mayor and Housing Director Triggers Fraud Investigation over Harvey Funds

Yesterday, City of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Housing and Community Development Director Tom McCasland got into a verbal brawl over alleged improprieties in the distribution of Harvey relief funds. The trigger was the award of $15 million to build a Clear Lake multi-family housing complex in which the Mayor’s former law partner, Barry […]

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September 17, 2021 Reduce Flooding

Help Needed: Public Comment Period Swiftly Closing on $750 Million HUD Flood-Mitigation Grant for Harris County

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) has announced that the public comment period for the first amendment to the state’s action plan for Community Development Block Grants for Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) will close in twelve days – on September 29, 2021. The GLO first posted the amendment to its $4.3 billion action plan on August 23rd. […]

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June 15, 2021 Reduce Flooding

GLO Letters to HUD, Green, Garcia Tell Another Side of Mitigation Funding Story

Two letters from Texas General Land Office (GLO) – one to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the other to US Representatives Al Green and Sylvia Garcia – explain the GLO’s awards in a recent competition for $1.1 billion in Harvey mitigation funding. GLO Commissioner George P. Bush sent the first […]

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May 9, 2021 Reduce Flooding

How to Speed Up Flood Mitigation Funding: Part II

Today marks the 1349th day since Hurricane Harvey. That’s also how long it took the United States to win World War II. To date, we’ve studied problems, made bold plans and, in a few cases, actually started constructing flood mitigation projects. But none of the $2.1 billion allocated for Texas flood mitigation by the US […]

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