Ensuring Fair and Effective Disaster Recovery

We are excited to have Sara Pratt, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs at HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (now with the civil rights law firm of Relman, Dane & Colfax), talk about her perspective Texas' landmark 2010 Conciliation Agreement, which re-directed more funds to Texans hardest hit by the 2008 hurricanes.

Over the past 10 years, the State of Texas has weathered the impact of four major hurricanes: Katrina, Rita, Dolly, and Ike. As communities began to recover and rebuild, Texas learned what many other states have discovered in the wake of record storms: Natural disasters reveal and highlight systemic inequalities in the communities affected and in the federal, state, and local systems set up to respond and rebuild.

Texas was awarded $3 billion in long-term federal disaster recovery funds to help recovery from Hurricanes Ike and Dolly in 2008. It quickly became clear, however, that how State and local jurisdictions were spending the first round of funding dramatically underserved low-income families and communities. The State’s plan for Round Two of the funding was worse, allocating funds within the state according to a model based on weather intensity instead of actual damage or unmet needs. The Houston-Galveston region, one of the hardest hit areas of the state, saw its allocation drop, while counties with no remaining disaster recovery needs saw increased funding. The “weather model” also misallocated funding away from the needs of low- and moderate-income families and communities of color.

Because the deficiencies in the State’s plan violated the Fair Housing Act, Texas Appleseed and Texas Low Income Housing Information Service filed a fair housing complaint with HUD.

Over the following months, the State of Texas, Texas Appleseed and the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service negotiated a Conciliation Agreement that settled the complaint and covered how $1.7 billion of federal disaster recovery funds would be spent, approved by HUD on May 25, 2010.

Although the Ike/Dolly disaster recovery program is still ongoing, the fair housing complaint and Conciliation Agreement resulted in over $200 million being returned to the hardest-hit areas on the Gulf Coast, and an additional $150 million directly benefitting low- and moderate-income Texans. So far, the implementation of the Agreement has resulted in public and affordable housing units being rebuilt in safer and higher opportunity areas, enabled community groups to ensure that recovery funding addressed their needs — like infrastructure repair funding for the colonias and additional funding for single-family home repair in Houston — ensured that over 180 Texas jurisdictions have received fair housing training that will help them through future fair housing planning, and served as a model for a fair housing complaint filed in New Jersey over that state’s use of Superstorm Sandy recovery funds.

Even today, our organizations still monitor the implementation of the Conciliation Agreement to ensure fair and equitable distribution of resources.

This post is part of Texas Appleseed’s 20th anniversary celebration. Between now and the end of December, we’re celebrating 20 of our proudest accomplishments. Learn about the rest of our work here and on social media.Donate nowif you want to support the next 20 years of fighting for justice.