Harris County to receive $750 million for flood mitigation projects

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Harris County is ready to get $750 million for flood mitigation tasks.

This comes after the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD) permitted an amended plan by the Texas Common Land Workplace. 

A further $488 million will likely be allotted to the Houston-Galveston Space Council for extra mitigation tasks within the area.    

“Making certain Texans obtain catastrophe restoration and mitigation funding in a well timed method to get better from Hurricane Harvey has all the time been my high precedence,” stated Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush. “The $750 million allocation will go on to Harris County for tasks that assist mitigate future flooding occasions, making a stronger extra resilient Texas.”

This announcement comes simply over per week after a HUD report discovered the Texas GLO discriminated in opposition to minority communities when it got here to flood help.

Feds agree Texas discriminated in opposition to communities of colour when it denied Houston Harvey aid funds

The Metropolis of Houston did not get a dime of the cash although it was one of many hardest-hit areas with catastrophic destruction attributable to Harvey’s floodwaters. 

“The matrix that the state arrange was inherently discriminatory in nature,” Mayor Sylvester Turner stated earlier this month. 

He stated the cash went to communities much less prone to flood on the expense of Houston residents in flood-prone neighborhoods. 

Harris County did not get something both, initially, however the GLO modified its tune underneath stress from Congress and native leaders. It awarded the county $1.25 billion for flood mitigation and infrastructure enhancements.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo stated she is grateful for the extra flood management {dollars} headed to the county, however stated the area ought to have obtained the funding within the first place. 

“Because the third-largest county in America, floor zero for Harvey injury and vulnerability to flooding, and residential to the nation’s vitality trade, there’s merely no excuse to have been shut out from these infrastructure funds within the first place. HUD’s civil rights issues are additionally deeply troubling and underscore the issues we now have had all alongside about how these funds had been initially allotted. As quickly because the funds arrive, the individuals of Harris County can relaxation assured that we’ll not waste a minute to use this substantial inflow of {dollars} pretty, equitably, and rapidly – as we now have with our personal native {dollars}.”

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