HCFCD Has Taken 4 Years to Spend 4% of HUD CDBG-DR Funds

4/21/26 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has taken more than 4 years to spend about 4% of the $322 million that HUD allocated to HCFCD for Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR). That figure is carved out of a larger total ($868 million) that also includes CDBG Mitigation funds.

Former Texas General Land Office (GLO) Commissioner George P. Bush announced his intention to allocate $750 million of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds to Harris County on 5/26/21. HUD approved that amount on 3/18/22. Subsequently, it increased when the GLO also re-allocated unused funds from storms before Harvey to Harris County.

Here’s a high-level breakdown as of today.

HCFCD has spent only 3.59% of the CDBG-DR project funds to date. That group has the tightest deadline, just 313 days away and involves roughly a third of a billion dollars.

Why Such a Low Percentage So Late In the Game?

To be fair, HCFCD had a lot of dominos to align:

• A method of distribution (how and where the money would be spent)
• Feasibility, preliminary-engineering, and final design studies
• Cost estimates
• Bids
• Property acquisition (for some projects)
• Obtaining GLO and HUD approval for all of the above.

But still…

Unnecessarily Burdensome Processes, Changing Horses in Midstream

Harris County made it more difficult than necessary with its own equity prioritization framework, which changed several times.

Judge Hidalgo and Commissioners Ellis and Garcia also forced out the management team that developed and sold the 2018 flood bond. Their replacement, Dr. Tina Petersen, had a long, steep learning curve and big shoes to fill. She also lost many key employees. That disrupted business continuity and cost institutional knowledge.

Since she took office, spending has gone down consistently as the pace of work slowed, partly as a consequence of a management style she calls “being more intentional.”

Self-Inflicted Wound

Having spent four years bickering about equity, the county now has just 10 months left to actually build all the jobs in order to beat a firm 2/28/27 deadline and avoid losing potentially ALL of the CDBG-DR funds.

According to a document submitted to commissioners court on 4/16/26 by Petersen and aerial photographs that I have taken, it appears that contractors are actually only turning dirt on one of 11 CDBG-DR projects.

Compare that with the TC Jester Basin project shown below. Both photos were taken on 4/19/2026.

Past Experience a Logistical Red Flag

If history is any indication, the vast majority of the CDBG-DR projects will take longer than 10 months to build. Ten of the 11 are large detention basins that typically take one to two years to build. The Mercer Basin on Cypress Creek, finished just last week, took three years. And TC Jester, above, is 55% larger.

If Petersen can pull the projects off before the buzzer sounds, she deserves that $90,000 raise she got last year. If not, she won’t be the only one with egg on her face.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/21/26

3157 Days since Hurricane Harvey

The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.