HCFCD Estimates 19 CDBG Projects Worth $649 Million Will Miss Deadlines
5/30/26 – According to Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) latest spreadsheet posted online, 19 of 29 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) projects will miss their deadlines. And those projects are valued at $649 million according to the General Land Office, which manages U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants in Texas.
Two Categories of Grants, Each with Different Deadlines
HUD’s CDBG grants fall into two categories: Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) and Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR). All DR projects have a deadline of 2/28/2027. And MIT projects have a deadline of 3/31/28.
Members of Harris County Commissioners Court have become increasingly concerned lately about the possibility of missing deadlines and losing HUD matching grants for a large portion of projects going into construction.
In response to those concerns, Commissioners Court led by Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey P.E. began demanding hard data instead of vague, but rosy assurances from Dr. Tina Petersen, head of HCFCD.
Petersen submitted one spreadsheet on 5/1/2026 showing project status and another on 5/18/2026 with slightly updated data. Each spreadsheet is massive with minuscule type. They are virtually unreadable on anything but a desktop computer with very large screen(s).
To simplify things for this post, I focused on two questions:
- How many projects will make their deadlines?
- What is the value of the projects that will and won’t make their deadlines?
Findings
Here’s what I found. Of…
And of…
In tabular form, it looks like this:
Everyone has been so focused on DR projects because of their deadline, now just 9 months away, that they overlooked the dire state of MIT projects.
While the potential loss of a quarter billion dollars in DR funding is staggering, the potential loss of another third of a billion dollars in MIT funding is devastating.
Another thing that jumped out at me from this data. While almost half the DR projects could make their deadline, the value of those projects is less than one fourth of the DR total value. They’re rushing to get smaller jobs into production at the expense of larger, more valuable jobs.
Every Precinct Affected, LMI Areas the Most
These projects affect every precinct in the county. And they affect low-to-moderate income areas the most. Sixty-two percent (62%) of the beneficiaries of these projects qualify as LMI (Low-to-Moderate Income).
How Dire are Deadlines?
Does missing the deadline automatically disqualify a project from reimbursement? Not necessarily. GLO has said that deadline extensions depend on how close a job is to completion.
If it’s 95% done and it could be finished within a month after the deadline, that’s probably NOT a problem.
But if it’s only 5% done and requires another year, that IS a problem. The GLO simply doesn’t have that much time to give away.
In fairness, the MIT projects are a little more complicated to track than DR projects. Half the money must be spent by 3/31/28. But the last table above suggests that only about a third of the MIT money will be spent by then. And that assumes the projects stay on track.
Last night ABC13 ran a 3-minute segment with investigative reporter Nick Natario interviewing Dr. Petersen about her job security. She repeatedly dodged his questions, saying, “I’m here to focus on projects and project delivery.”
That knack for candor should make the next Commissioners Court meeting interesting. Last month, Judge Lina Hidalgo said bluntly to Petersen, “I just lost my confidence in you.”
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/30/26
3196 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.
