Mike Synder of the Houston Chronicle this weekend picked up on the story about Governor Perry’s diversion of funds away…
Tag: Hurricane Rita
First homes complete, Texas Grow Home Project website launched
The first two Texas Grow Homes in Port Arthur have been completed by Houston-based CDC Covenant Neighborhoods and the new…
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…
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…
It is time to stop pretending the COG disaster housing rebuilding program is the answer
In Wednesday’s blog entry I reported on the performance of the Councils of Governments (COGs) in carrying out Round 1…
Examining claims of local effectiveness in administration of housing disaster funds
There have been a lot of claims voiced by Councils of Governments (COGs), local officials and the Texas Office of…
Put an end to FEMA trailers by moving people quickly into permanent housing
She says it far better than I can. We shot this interview with a woman whose home suffered major damage…
Is federal disaster assistance an entitlement?
The back-and-forth between the Texas governor and the US Secretary of Homeland Security over who will pay for the removal…
Closer scrutiny will follow Texas expenditure of $1.3 billion in hurricane relief
HUD has allocated Texas $1.3 billion of the $2.1 billion in Community Development Block Grant funds that Congress has recently…
Reforming FEMA alone won’t fix the problem
There are hopes that a structural reform and management reorganization of FEMA under the Obama Administration will solve the problems…
Slow expenditures, questionable priorities plague Houston and Harris County administered hurricane relief efforts
We have been critical of the decisions of the City of Houston and of Harris County so far as their…
Lessons from Kartina and Rita about rebuilding permanent housing for low income hurricane survivors
We learned valuable lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita about providing post-disaster housing assistance to low income families. This is…
A New Orleans obituary has lessons for Galveston
They have their hands full right now, but someday before the plans for rebuilding are set the city leaders in…
Lingering concerns about Texas Hurricane Rita home rebuilding
I am supporting the the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs Round 2 plan for CDBG housing assistance for…
National fixes for post disaster housing programs
I have posted the testimony I presented to Congress regarding how the federal government can betterprovide long-term housing disaster assistance…
At least we are better off than Mississippi and Alabama
Watch my testimony before the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the House Financial Service Committee, or, better yet,…
Texas tempts fate and courts disaster
Is it that we Texans like living dangerously? Are we just slow to learn? Or are we the victims of…
FEMA and HUD: not who you would want to depend on to throw you a life preserver
The House Financial Services Committee called HUD and FEMA to testify about when the lead federal agencies for hurricane relief…
We have not learned the lessons of Katrina
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina we wondered what we could do to help. We settled on four things: 1)…