Our board member Dr. Shannon Van Zandt, a professor and interim head of Texas A&M University’s Landscape Architecture and Urban…
Category: Disaster Recovery
From preparedness, planning, and equity to rebuilding and mitigation, disaster recovery encompasses issues deeply important to the rehabilitation and recovery of low-income communities living in disaster-prone areas in Texas.
Court rules for colonia residents over FEMA denial of post-disaster home repair help
Our friends at La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) have been waging a multi-year…
Smithsonian design museum opens exhibit featuring innovative Texas disaster recovery program
The title of the new exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City sums up the…
First-ever colonia disaster recovery conference prepares residents for emergencies
Natural disasters hit low income households the hardest, especially in the colonias of the Rio Grande Valley. Learning to prepare…
State interference threatens Galveston’s promise of equitable disaster recovery
Eight years ago, Galveston was devastated by Hurricane Ike. Four years ago, at the urging of the Texas General Land…
Years of organizing lead to vital stormwater drainage project for Rio Grande Valley colonias
Inequality is most starkly manifested in the differences between rich and poor neighborhoods. And nowhere is inequality greater than in the…
RAPIDO disaster recovery housing model to be exhibited at Smithsonian
RAPIDO, the innovative disaster recovery housing program recognized by the MacArthur Foundation, Public Radio International, SXSW and many others, has received another impressive honor. The…
Our recommendations to Texas Senate committee considering disaster recovery improvements
On February 3, the Texas Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) held a public hearing in Brownsville on one of their…
Eight years after hurricanes, Texas disaster recovery efforts are $1 billion behind
The Texas Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee (IGR) has begun to investigate the failures of the state’s disaster recovery process, finding that…
Video: Informing Texas senators about how to fix disaster recovery
In early December, the Texas Senate Committee of Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) held a public hearing and overview of the interim…
Disaster declared in several Texas counties, but comprehensive recovery strategy still needed
On the day before Thanksgiving, President Obama signed an official federal disaster declaration for the Texas counties affected by severe…
Texas Senate committee to study disaster preparedness, ramifications of Supreme Court fair housing case
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has issued his third installment of interim charges for state senate committees, the in-depth studies…
Video: What Texas must learn about disaster recovery and fair housing
It’s been 10 years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast, and in subsequent years other major hurricanes have devastated Texas’ coastal communities. Our…
Still waiting for help: The lessons of Hurricane Katrina on poverty
This article was originally published on The Conversation, and is republished here in accordance with their Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivatives license.…
South Texas colonia conditions mean possible repeat of Katrina level disaster
Ten years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Rio Grande Valley in southeast Texas is exactly the kind of…
Three things Texas should do to make rebuilding from the floods faster and easier
With President Obama’s major flooding disaster declaration of certain Texas counties the long-term disaster rebuilding process will soon begin again.…
Update: Disaster recovery legislation still has chance to pass in wake of floods
Update 5/28: Last night, Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. of Brownsville, the original sponsor of the Disaster Recovery Housing legislation, attached…
My remarks at the University of Texas School of Architecture commencement: “Hit a lick against what’s wrong or say a word for what’s right”
Yesterday I had the honor to deliver the keynote speech at the 102nd commencement ceremony for the School of Architecture at the…
Rio Grande Valley families bring experiences with Disaster Recovery Housing Program to Legislature
A proposal to expand the Disaster Recovery Housing Program is currently before the Texas Legislature, and the bill, SB 1376…
Public Radio International highlights housing issues in the Rio Grande Valley
Public Radio International reporter (and former TxLIHIS staff member) Alina Simone spent some time in the Rio Grande Valley last month…
Houston Chronicle: Disaster recovery housing program badly mismanaged
On Saturday, the Houston Chronicle published reporter Harvey Rice’s exploration into the systemic failures in rebuilding disaster housing in the…
On being named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow
I am deeply honored today to be named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow by the MacArthur Foundation. This recognition comes to me…
Opponents of public housing in Galveston file lawsuit claiming rebuilding public housing would further segregation
This situation is simply so bizarre it speaks for itself. From today’s Houston Chronicle GALVESTON – Opponents of public housing…
City of Houston introduces developers to residents of 3 designated economically, racially integrated communities
Through the CDBG Hurricane Ike Disaster Recovery program the City of Houston is using more than $100 million in federal…
Texas Senate to study disaster rebuilding – trying to get it right next time around
Unfortunately, Texas has a lot of experience administering governmental programs to help Texans rebuild their homes in the wake of…
Galveston agrees to steps to rebuild public housing
It appears that the rebuilding of the 569 public housing in Galveston demolished in the wake of Hurricane Ike may be…
Texas can act now to prevent the next industrial disaster in Port Arthur and Texas City
Bill Minutaglio, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, the author of “City on Fire: The Explosion…
Hurricane Ike survivors testify at House Ways and Means
Shelly Batten and Tina Colunga drove up from Galveston yesterday to testify on HB 835. HB 835, by Representative Eiland, (and…
Will Texas learn a lesson from the tragedy at West?
Everyone is horrified at the loss of life and destruction last night from the explosion of a fertilizer plant in…
Chrishelle Palay helps Houston’s poor and needy plead their cause
Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. – Proverbs 31:9 . Chrishelle Palay…