Today Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced the awarding of $35.4 million in Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds for Harris County to initiate a buyout program for repeatedly flooded homes in Harris County. The money is being awarded from $57.8 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) CDBG-DR funds designated for previous events and held back in the case of an event in 2017. When Hurricane Harvey made landfall, Commissioner Bush made a request to HUD to release the allocation of funds.
"The GLO is moving forward with our recovery efforts as quickly as possible to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey," said Commissioner Bush. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to advocate for and expedite federal housing and infrastructure funds to help Texans recover and rebuild stronger."
According to the National Flood Insurance Program data, Harris County had the highest number of properties - more than 3,000 - that flooded during Hurricane Harvey and have flooded at least one prior time. HUD designated Harris County as the sole most impacted county for this allocation to receive 80% of the total allocation. The GLO awarded $35.4 million to fund a housing buyout program, which will to prevent as many homes as possible from being rebuilt in harm's way.
These funds will be administered by Harris County in partnership with the Harris County Flood Control District and will be used to acquire up to 160 single family homes and assist families in moving out of high flood risk areas. The areas acquired through the housing buyouts will be used for floodplain preservation, to include drainage improvements.
Harris County Housing Buy Out Program contact information:
Website:
www.harrisrecovery.org
Email:
rebuildharris@csd.hctx.net
Phone Number: 832-927-4961
To date, the GLO has awarded $42 million of the recently approved $57.8 million State Action Plan to help Texas communities recover from the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. On Friday, June 1, the GLO submitted Amendment 1 to HUD for approval. Once approved by HUD, an addition $8,000,000 will be available to Harris County for additional flood buyouts.
About GLO Community Development and Revitalization (CDR)
In addition to short-term housing in partnership with Federal Emergency Management Agency, the CDR division of the Texas General Land Office administers the Housing and Urban Development CDBG-DR funds on behalf of the state of Texas. More than $9 billion has been allocated for recovery following Hurricanes Rita, Dolly, and Ike, the 2011 wildfires, the 2015 and 2016 floods and Hurricane Harvey. These grants can be used for a wide variety of activities including housing redevelopment, infrastructure repair and long-term planning. For more information, please visit
TexasRebuilds.org.
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