Today, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham published a press release as a defense of last week’s finding from HUD that the Texas General Land Office (GLO) intentionally discriminated in the distribution of $1 billion in disaster mitigation funding, which resulted in half a million Texans of color and over a million Texans overall going unserved, mostly in Houston and Harris County. This statement by GLO Commissioner Buckingham is riddled with falsehoods about the plain facts regarding their refusal to address this civil rights violation. Here is our full statement in response to Commissioner Buckingham’s comments:
Commissioner Buckingham used an official public statement to turn what is a matter of law and morality into a political tit-for-tat. HUD delivered over 30 pages of detailed statistical and factual analysis, the culmination of a two-year investigation, which Commissioner Buckingham now seeks to dismiss out of hand, not with facts or strong arguments, but with glib political slogans. Her statement does not even consider the one million Texans under her care who have suffered and will continue to suffer due to GLO’s actions.
We take civil rights seriously, and expect our elected leaders to as well. A federal agency released a 34-page opinion backed by data and facts that concludes that the GLO engaged in intentional racial discrimination. We should expect any public servant in Commissioner Buckingham’s position to engage with this finding with seriousness and solemnity. Instead Commissioner Buckingham trivialized the civil rights legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. just days after we celebrated his achievements and life. Commissioner Buckingham’s statements attempt to diminish a serious civil rights issue, flinging it into the mud of politics by calling it “fake news.”
Commissioner Buckingham should take action today to serve her constituents by remedying this scandalous discrimination, not to mention the obviously inefficient use of public funds. As our federal and state government each look to improve efficiency, we must also cast a critical eye on this inefficient use of funds that left a million Texans vulnerable to disasters.
Regarding the actions HUD took last week, here’s what actually happened and why it matters:
- HUD elevated their finding from discriminatory impact to intentional discrimination.
- HUD concluded their investigation as requested by the DOJ and referred the case to the DOJ under the Fair Housing Act, in contradiction to Commissioner Buckingham’s false claims.
- HUD found that the GLO’s intentional, deliberate discrimination resulted in 600,000 Black and Brown residents, mostly in Houston and Harris County, going without critical infrastructure to protect them from disasters. HUD supports this with pages of evidence.
- HUD also found that GLO’s deliberate discrimination resulted in 1 million Texans of any race in high risk areas, mostly in Houston and Harris County, going without critical disaster infrastructure. So not only are their actions racially discriminatory, they are also highly inefficient and ineffective use of funds.
You can read the findings for yourself here. What is your conclusion? Who is saying the “fake news” here? What is the GLO’s explanation for using federal disaster funds so inefficiently that it resulted in over one million Texans in areas with the greatest risk of disasters going unfunded?
As GLO is set to receive half a billion in new funds for disaster recovery, they must fix this ongoing discriminatory pattern and practice immediately. We continue to call on DOJ, HUD, GLO, the City of Houston, and Harris County to immediately act to remedy this discrimination and provide relief for the Texans who have suffered and will continue to suffer.
