On January 15, 2025, in the final days of the Biden Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)…
Tag: Texas GLO
GLO Commissioner Dawn Buckingham makes false claims in defense of decisions that left a million Texans at risk from disasters
Today, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham published a press release as a defense of last week’s finding from HUD that…
HUD finds that GLO ‘intentionally discriminated’ against Black and Brown Texans, refers case to DOJ
Texas Housers and the Northeast Action Collective (NAC) have fought since 2018 to compel the Texas General Land Office to…
Texas quietly enabled a revolutionary pre-disaster preparedness plan. Cities and counties need to buy in for it to work.
In 2018, Texas Housers and partner organizations urged the Texas Legislature to pass S.B. 289, a bill that allows local…
With thousands of homes still in disrepair 6 years since Hurricane Harvey, the GLO requests to remove available funding for Houston and Harris County residents
The State of Texas has asked permission of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to end its…
Five Years After Harvey: Disaster Recovery In Texas Is An Ongoing Disaster
In a series of blogs, Texas Housers is observing the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Harvey by examining the responses from…
Texas GLO must enter Voluntary Compliance Agreement or Southeast Texas communities of color will continue losing livelihoods and lives
In March of 2022, the Department of Housing and Urban Development determined that the Texas General Land Office was discriminatory…
A Little Louder Episode 45: Texas GLO and Discrimination
This week, HUD released its final determination that Texas GLO discriminated against Black and Hispanic Texans in its distribution of…
HUD finds that Texas GLO discriminated against communities of color in $4 billion CDBG-MIT program
In a historic victory for communities of color in Houston and the Gulf Coast, the Department of Housing and Urban…
HUD stopping State of Texas’s misuse of federal disaster mitigation funds is not about paperwork or politics, it’s about saying no to discrimination
There’s something important missing from the recent news reports on HUD’s decision to withhold $1.95 billion of federal disaster mitigation…
Watch community members, Texas Housers and Northeast Action Collective’s press conference on Texas GLO’s neglect of neighborhoods of color
On August 22, the Texas General Land Office (GLO) asked HUD to approve a modification of GLO’s controversial decision to…
Texas GLO boasts about the PREPS Program while Harvey Survivors live in homes in dire need of repair
Co-written with Ben Hirsh of West Street Recovery and the Harvey Forgotten Survivors Caucus In a Houston Chronicle op-ed last…
Here is how Texas GLO must address systemic racial inequity through CDBG-MIT planning and disaster mitigation
Racial prejudice is not simply expressed through interpersonal bigotry, but it is a systemic issue that has been intentionally built…
The distribution of Texas’ disaster recovery funds exemplifies inequity. Here’s how we told the State to fix it.
There is a painful misconception in disaster recovery that is sometimes used as an excuse to maintain the status quo:…
Lawsuit by four Texas renters says State of Texas, HUD discriminate on race in Hurricane Harvey aid
Four South Texas renters filed a civil rights lawsuit last week in federal court alleging HUD and the State of…
Two years of disaster recovery: we are holding our fire for now as we listen to survivors and ask government for a honest accounting
In the two years since Hurricane Harvey made landfall, so much has changed. There has even been some encouraging movement…
West Street Recovery makes recommendations to improve state-run rapid repair program
This is a guest blog, written by West Street Recovery staff Ben Hirsch and Becky Selle. West Street Recovery is a…
Texas Housers calls on state to amend Harvey recovery action plan to be more equitable and inclusive
The state must commit to an equitable, inclusive plan that will make new and repaired housing affordable to Texans with…
State must amend plan for disaster recovery so thousands of low- and moderate-income Texans can rebuild and recover
Texas Housers and partners Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid and Texas Appleseed held a press conference Friday morning about the…
Homeowners demand state officials fix disaster recovery partial home repair program
This week, Houston homeowners spoke out about their experience with the state-run, FEMA-funded rapid repair program, called PREPS. One homeowner…
Texas Housers seeks disclosure of disaster housing program data maintained by State of Texas
The State of Texas is spending many millions of dollars in public funds on short-term housing for Harvey survivors. That…
To achieve an equitable recovery, we propose a fairer way to determine needs of Hurricane Harvey survivors
When the methods used to determine needs of hurricane survivors favor higher income people and communities, the process of recovery…
Houston coalition for equitable recovery advocates more resources for low-income survivors in comments to Texas officials
A Houston-based coalition advocating an equitable recovery for vulnerable survivors of Hurricane Harvey is calling on the State of Texas…
FEMA contract keeps Texas from sharing its own data publicly about state-funded disaster recovery programs
Texans are in the dark about the State’s progress in administering short-term housing programs and whether the State is meeting…
The needs of low-income Hurricane Harvey survivors cannot be determined by FEMA data alone
To determine unmet need of survivors of disaster, the state relies heavily on FEMA data, an appropriate source, but one…
Citizen participation plan crucial to giving Hurricane Harvey survivors a voice in recovery
“Nothing about us without us.” It’s a common phrase that has been used by political movements in history — notably…
How the state should evaluate the needs of survivors after a disaster
The state’s draft action plan for spending $57.8 million in federal disaster recovery funds was released on Jan. 18. The Texas General…
The State of Texas must pay special attention to civil rights when it carries out disaster recovery plans
The state’s draft action plan for spending $57.8 million in federal disaster recovery funds was released on Jan. 18. The Texas General…
VIDEO: Will state officials incorporate lessons from previous hurricanes in their plans for Harvey recovery?
The state’s draft action plan for spending $57.8 million in federal disaster recovery funds was released on Jan. 18. The Texas General…
Is the state’s rapid home repair program an effective use of federal disaster recovery funds?
The state’s draft action plan for spending $57.8 million in federal disaster recovery funds was released on Jan. 18. The Texas General…