On Saturday, May 21, 2011, Texas Organizing Project (TOP) along with other supporting organizations spearheaded a record attendance Town Hall…
Tag: Hurricane Ike
HUD Approves Phase I of Texas Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing
One of the conditions of the TxLIHIS – Texas Appleseed – State of Texas Fair Housing settlement on hurricane recovery…
John Henneberger Testimony at TDHCA Board Meeting on Disaster Recovery Housing Programs
John Henneberger, a Co-Director of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, spoke at the May 5, 2011 board meeting…
New York Times praises State of Texas/TxLIHIS disaster recovery settlement
The New York Times published this editorial Monday about our settlement with the State of Texas. Editorial HUD Steps Up…
Statement on our Fair Housing settlement with the State of Texas
HUD ACCEPTS $1.7 BILLION REVISED DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN PRIORITIZING REBUILDING HOMES OF SURVIVORS An historic agreement between affordable housing advocates,…
The TxLIHIS / TX Appleseed / State of Texas fair housing settlement agreement
The settlement agreement can be viewed as a PDF document on the HUD website: http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2010/HUDNo.10-106/conciliationagreement.pdf
HUD announces approval of TxLIHIS – Texas Appleseed – State of Texas Fair Housing settlement on hurricane recovery
HUD has issued an announcement of their approval of of the settlement agreement to the TxLIHIS/Texas Appleseed fair housing complaint…
Houston Chronicle reports hurricane rebuilding fund diversion
Mike Synder of the Houston Chronicle this weekend picked up on the story about Governor Perry’s diversion of funds away…
The Texas plan directs rebuilding money away from those in need
There is really no other way to characterize the plan Governor Perry submitted to HUD to spend $1.7 billion in…
HUD pushes Governor to redirect hurricane rebuilding funds to hurricane impacted counties
Things did not slow down during the holidays over the shape of Hurricane Ike and Dolly rebuilding programs in Texas,…
What the State of Texas must do to fix the Hurricane rebuilding plan (and what we plan to do to make sure it does)
People have asked me what we want from the Texas CDBG Disaster Rebuilding Plan that we have criticized and that…
HUD denies Governor Perry’s Amended Recovery Plan
On November 10, HUD Assistant Secretary Mercedes Marquez issued a letter to Governor Rick Perry denying the State of Texas’s…
HUD Rejects State of Texas CDBG Disaster Recovery Plan
HUD has rejected the State of Texas Plan to spend $1.7 billion in CDBG disaster recovery funds for Hurricane Dolly…
HUD should reject the State of Texas plan to misspend $3 billion in CDBG disaster recovery funds
The State of Texas is required to submit a plan amendment to HUD by September 30 outlining its final plan…
Governor orders $1.3B Hurricane recovery plan changed but fails to fix the problem
Not surprisingly the ill-conceived “weather report plan” proposed by ORCA to divide up the federal disaster recovery dollars in Texas…
How much housing money is needed for Ike/Dolly rebuilding?
ORCA has proposed to allocate the remaining $1.3 billion of the $3,057,991,440 in Ike/Dolly CDBG rebuilding funds based on a model…
Testimony describes absurdity of Texas hurricane disaster fund allocation plan
Joe Higgs, organizer for Gulf Coast Interfaith, laid out clearly the problems with the proposed State of Texas plan to…
Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey on the politics of hurricane rebuilding
In his column today Houston Chronicle featured columnist Rick Casey speculates about why Governor Perry is allowing the Texas Office…
Governor Perry’s disaster rebuilding plan is the latest disaster to strike Texas
We share the state auditor’s concerns in a report just released about the unacceptable length of time it takes the…
Getting closer to finding out why so many Texas hurricane survivors were denied housing assistance
The pieces are slowly coming together to answer the question, why were so many applications for FEMA housing assistance in…
Katrina Cottage pilot program woes due to failure at all levels
How many times do we have to hear the story before it sinks in? Let’s sum up the government response…
TX Legislature seeks better homes, faster repairs for hurricane survivors
It has been almost a year since Hurricane Ike’s and Hurricane Dolly’s floodwaters rose above streets, and above doors and…
Galveston Long Term Recovery Plan should focus on what it takes to allow survivors to return home
Lots of hard work has gone into the production of the Galveston Long Term Recovery Plan. The citizens behind this…
Rental housing most vulnerable in Hurricane Ike shortchanged in reconstruction plan
Renters and rental housing were particularly hard hit by Hurricane Ike. Yet renters and rental housing needs are being shortchanged…
The “Ike Dike” is no excuse for diverting money from rebuilding homes
The June 4 issue of the Wall Street Journal reports that Houston leaders are pushing a plan to protect against…
How Ike and future hurricanes impact Black households disproportionately
African-American households reside in areas most vulnerable to hurricanes in the greater Galveston Bay area. Census tracts in which 60%…
A confession: we’ve learned firsthand the reasons for disaster rebuilding delays
I have to fess up. Having pointed out in yesterday’s blog the unacceptably slow pace of rebuilding homes destroyed in…
Housing advocates tell HUD that TX Disaster recovery plan fails to disclose how the money will be spent
After reviewing the Disaster Recovery Plan that the Texas Office of Rural Community Affairs (ORCA) submitted to HUD the Texas…
A failed housing program will always come back and bite the responsible entity
One had to feel sorry for Michael Gerber Thursday morning. Appearing before a subcommittee of the Texas House Appropriations Committee…
Texas will be forced to ration hurricane home repair grants
Texas should allocate the limited disaster funds so that they take care of the housing needs of Hurricane Ike/Dolly survivors…