Two Houston groups – the Northeast Action Collective and Texas Housers – claimed the GLO ignored Houston and Harris County in the distribution of the first tranche of Harvey aid. Houston and Harris County got $0 from the first $1 billion. But the Northeast Action Collective and Texas Housers ignored the fact that ALL of the next $750 million went to Harris County.
Moreover, the GLO announced the $750 million a full month BEFORE the two groups filed their discrimination complaint in 2021.
GLO Cleared
The investigation began on June 25, 2021. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity found that “no reasonable cause exists to believe the GLO has violated the Fair Housing Act, Title VI, or the Housing and Community Development Act through its administration of the 2019 CDBG-MIT funds, including the Hurricane Harvey State Mitigation Competition.”
Complainant Allegations
Complainants alleged discrimination on the basis of race and national origin, and that scoring criteria systematically and deliberately advantaged white communities while disadvantaging low- and moderate income (LMI) African-American and Hispanic communities.
GLO Defense
Looking only at the first billion dollars, GLO presented evidence that roughly 1.2 million of the 1.5 million Texans who benefited from the approved projects were Hispanic, Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native American. The GLO also showed that 100% of the awards went to projects in majority LMI areas.
GLO also argued that complainants could not look only at one portion of the grants. Or look only at the first round of Harvey Grants and ignore 2015 and 2016 grants.
Findings
HUD found that the GLO substantially exceeded HUD’s requirement to direct at least 50% of funds to Most Impacted and Distressed (MID) areas. In 2015, 2016 and the first round of Harvey, GLO directed roughly 60% of all HUD funds to MID areas.
GLO later cancelled the second round of Harvey competition and allocated $750 million exclusively to Harris County. The County’s population is 42.9% Hispanic and 18.6% Black – a total of 61.5%. With other minorities, that brought minority beneficiaries for all phases to more than 66%.
Location of HUD/GLO projects in Harris County as of 2024.
Thus the complainants failed to show a disproportionate impact on minorities. Northeast Action Collective and Housers failed to assess the share of total beneficiaries that were black, white or Hispanic compared to the racial demographics of eligible areas.
Even when looking at just Round One of the Harvey competition, “no reasonable cause exists to believe the GLO’s administration had a disparate racial impact on funding.”
The complainants focused on Houston and Harris County not winning any awards during the Harvey Round One competition. Another section of the 22-page legal brief deals with why. To a large degree, not winning any awards in Round One resulted from the Benefit/Cost Analyses of submitted projects. Smaller jurisdictions just had lower costs per beneficiary. (See page 13.)
For instance, one project submitted by the City would have benefitted fewer than 10,000 people, but cost $94 million. In other words, the City was seeking 18% of Round One funds to benefit less than a half-percent of the City’s population.
HUD determined that “Houston’s poor performance in the Harvey Competition is attributable, at least in part, to its expensive, low-impact project proposals.”
Conclusion
“The facts of this case do not suggest that GLO intentionally discriminated against any racial or ethnic group through its administration of the CDBG-MIT funds,” said the final ruling.
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.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241015-CDBG.jpg?fit=1100%2C643&ssl=16431100adminadmin2026-01-29 20:30:112026-02-03 09:38:49HUD Clears GLO of Discrimination in Distribution of Harvey-Mitigation Funds
1/28/26 – People living near the Kingwood Diversion Ditch and the Woodridge Village/Taylor Gully area have been asking what happened to their flood-mitigation projects. Good news: Both are moving forward. Here’s some historical context, where the projects currently stand, and what comes next.
Kingwood Diversion Ditch
The Kingwood Diversion Ditch splits off Bens Branch between Northpark Drive and the new St. Martha Catholic Church. It runs down the western side of North and South Woodland Hills past the fire station on Kingwood Drive. Then it continues south past Trailwood, Deer Ridge Park and finally joins the San Jacinto West Fork at River Grove Park. Along the way, it goes under four bridges.
Neel-Schaffer completed a preliminary engineering study in early 2025. The company recommended widening the Diversion Ditch and building a new outfall to West Fork west of River Grove Park. They projected the cost to be almost $41 million, but it would reduce the floodplain size by 177 acres and remove 34 structures from the floodplain.
Diversion Ditch shown in white, proposed new outfall in green, and Bens Branch in red.
The improvements would divert enough stormwater from Bens Branch to take it from a 2-year level of service to a 100-year level. That’s good news for the merchants in Kingwood Town Center. They all flooded during Harvey and 12 seniors died at Kingwood Village Estates.
The project almost died last year when Democratic County Commissioners voted to redeploy all remaining flood bond funds to the highest scoring projects on their equity prioritization framework. However, they later reconsidered that motion. The Diversion Ditch already had federal partnership funds allocated to it thanks to the work of Congressman Dan Crenshaw. His earmark for the Walnut Lane Bridge saved it from the chopping block.
Now the project is moving again. In late 2025, Harris County awarded a contract to Halff Associates, Inc. for the final engineering and design of the project.
In its January 22 board meeting, the Texas Water Development Board authorized an agreement with Harris County Flood Control District for a $5 million grant that State Representative Charles Cunningham obtained during the 89th Legislative Regular Session. (See item 12.)
HCFCD spokesperson Emily Woodell said the District expects the design work to start by March 1. She also says that additional funding will come from EPA grants to cover design and the 2018 bond to cover construction. Woodell expects construction to begin in late 2027.
Woodridge Village/Taylor Gully
The Kingwood Area Drainage Analysis ranked the Diversion Ditch and the Woodridge Village/Taylor Gully Project as the two most important projects in Kingwood because they help the largest numbers of people.
The 270-acre Woodridge Village Project is the aborted Perry Homes development purchased by Harris County and the City of Houston in 2020. It lies north of Sherwood Trails and Elm Grove in Montgomery County. Except for a few acres on the extreme western end, virtually all of it drains into Taylor Gully.
Perry’s contractors clearcut the Woodridge site starting in 2017 and sloped it toward Taylor Gully. Then before they installed detention ponds and drainage systems, runoff from the site flooded up to 600 homes twice in 2019. Residents had not even finished repairing their homes from the first flood in May, when they flooded again in September. A massive class action lawsuit resulted in a substantial settlement for the victims.
Taylor Gully flooding near Rustling Elms on May 7, 2019.
Before purchasing Woodridge Village from Perry, HCFCD stipulated that they had to finish building all of the stormwater detention basins planned as part of the buildout. However, those detention basins only brought the property up to pre-Atlas 14 standards. They fell 40% short of Atlas 14 requirements.
Shortly after the purchase, HCFCD started building an additional detention basin to bring the total detention capacity onsite up to and beyond Atlas-14 requirements. Sprint Sand and Clay began the work under an excavation and removal (E&R) contract. E&R contracts give HCFCD a head start on production. They let contractors begin removing dirt for a nominal fee and then sell it on the open market to make up their profit margin.
Woodridge Village on May 31 2025. The beginning of a new detention basin was never completed or connected.
However, when HCFCD applied for a HUD CDBG-MIT grant through the Texas General Land Office, HCFCD was forced to pause the project. That’s because projects cannot change while the GLO and HUD consider a grant request.
Scope of project outlined in preliminary engineering review. Compartment 1 is in current bid and will take project up to and slightly beyond Atlas 14 requirements. Compartment 2 will be treated as a separate project in the future if/when needed.
Expand a portion of Taylor Gully and line it with concrete.
Build another stormwater detention basin on Woodridge Village holding 412 acre-feet.
Replace the culverts at Rustling Elms with a clear-span bridge.
Fast forward: GLO and HUD approved grants for $42 million in October, 2025. HCFCD put the project out for bids. And proposals are due by Feb. 16, 2026. See screen capture from County purchasing below.
Screen capture supplied by Precinct 3 Engineer Eric Heppen
Even though the bid above is listed as “channel conveyance improvements,” according to Woodell, it also includes the Woodridge Village Stormwater Detention Basin(s). “Since Woodridge mitigates Taylor Gully, those two projects have been combined forever after,” she said.
The HUD/GLO deadline for finishing the project is March 31, 2028. That’s do-able if everyone hustles.
Additional funding for this project came from U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw. He secured federal funding for Taylor Gully improvements in March 2022. And Representative Charles Cunningham helped secure state funding through the TWDB.
At a September 2024 press conference where Woodridge meets Taylor Gully. Left to Right, Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey PE, US Rep. Dan Crenshaw, HCFCD Exec. Dir. Dr. Tina Petersen, Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger and State Rep. Charles Cunningham.
More news to follow when we see the bids.
Posted by Bob Rehak on January 28, 2026
3074 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Kingwood-Flood-Mit.jpg?fit=1100%2C670&ssl=16701100adminadmin2026-01-28 14:44:172026-01-28 17:05:33Update on Two Kingwood Flood-Mitigation Projects
1/27/26 – Are you having trouble researching the flood risk of a home? Yours or perhaps one you are considering buying? Worried that your flood risk may have increased over time? If so, the Houston Chronicle wants to hear from you.
During Harvey, 154,170 homes in Harris County alone flooded. That was an estimated 9- to 12-percent of all the structures in the county. See page 13 of HCFCD’s final Harvey Report.
Of the 154,170 homes that flooded, 48,850 were within the 1% (100-yr) floodplain, 34,970 within the .2% (500-yr) floodplain, and 70,370 were outside of any floodplain – almost halfthe total of those within floodplains.
That troubling percentage prompted a re-examination of floodplain assumptions and flood risk after Harvey. The result was a massive effort by Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to update flood maps. But 8.5 years later, after repeated delays, new maps still haven’t been released. Compare the two timelines below.
2020 screen capture from MAAPnext.org showing release of preliminary maps in early 2022.Screen captured on 1/27/26.Note also the new narrative about “FEMA is leading the process” in lower right.
And that’s one way you get 65,000 homes sold in floodplains since Harvey. But those are only the floodplains that we know about. That number could easily increase when new maps showing the expanded floodplains are released.
Has Uncertainty Affected Your Flood Risk?
That uncertainty, coupled with the constant need to build, buy or sell homes, could be laying the groundwork for the next natural disaster. The uncertainty makes it difficult to assess a home’s true flood risk and determine whether that’s a risk you’re willing to take.
Are you uninsured? Underinsured? Could you afford flood insurance on top of a mortgage if you suddenly found yourself in a floodplain? Could you afford a total loss if you flooded without insurance?
“Many homeowners don’t learn their property is in a high-risk area until after they purchase it,” said Cheng. “Repeated delays in the release of new flood maps have exacerbated that problem.”
“We’re looking to speak with residents across the Houston metro area, including Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Galveston and other nearby counties. Your story could help others understand the risks and may be featured in our reporting,” says Cheng.
The Chronicle questionnaire has about a half dozen short, factual questions that should take no more than five minutes to answer. Please help. You do not need to subscribe to the Chronicle to participate in the survey.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/27/26
3073 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Flood-Map-Update-Timetable.png?fit=1182%2C847&ssl=18471182adminadmin2026-01-27 16:02:042026-01-27 20:41:44Trouble Researching Flood Risk of a Home?
HUD Clears GLO of Discrimination in Distribution of Harvey-Mitigation Funds
1/29/26 – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found the Texas General Land Office (GLO) did not discriminate against minorities or low-to-moderate income Texans in the distribution of Hurricane Harvey Flood Mitigation Funds. The investigation reviewed more than 80,000 pages of documents.
Two Houston groups – the Northeast Action Collective and Texas Housers – claimed the GLO ignored Houston and Harris County in the distribution of the first tranche of Harvey aid. Houston and Harris County got $0 from the first $1 billion. But the Northeast Action Collective and Texas Housers ignored the fact that ALL of the next $750 million went to Harris County.
Moreover, the GLO announced the $750 million a full month BEFORE the two groups filed their discrimination complaint in 2021.
GLO Cleared
The investigation began on June 25, 2021. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity found that “no reasonable cause exists to believe the GLO has violated the Fair Housing Act, Title VI, or the Housing and Community Development Act through its administration of the 2019 CDBG-MIT funds, including the Hurricane Harvey State Mitigation Competition.”
Complainant Allegations
Complainants alleged discrimination on the basis of race and national origin, and that scoring criteria systematically and deliberately advantaged white communities while disadvantaging low- and moderate income (LMI) African-American and Hispanic communities.
GLO Defense
Looking only at the first billion dollars, GLO presented evidence that roughly 1.2 million of the 1.5 million Texans who benefited from the approved projects were Hispanic, Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native American. The GLO also showed that 100% of the awards went to projects in majority LMI areas.
GLO also argued that complainants could not look only at one portion of the grants. Or look only at the first round of Harvey Grants and ignore 2015 and 2016 grants.
Findings
HUD found that the GLO substantially exceeded HUD’s requirement to direct at least 50% of funds to Most Impacted and Distressed (MID) areas. In 2015, 2016 and the first round of Harvey, GLO directed roughly 60% of all HUD funds to MID areas.
GLO later cancelled the second round of Harvey competition and allocated $750 million exclusively to Harris County. The County’s population is 42.9% Hispanic and 18.6% Black – a total of 61.5%. With other minorities, that brought minority beneficiaries for all phases to more than 66%.
Thus the complainants failed to show a disproportionate impact on minorities. Northeast Action Collective and Housers failed to assess the share of total beneficiaries that were black, white or Hispanic compared to the racial demographics of eligible areas.
Even when looking at just Round One of the Harvey competition, “no reasonable cause exists to believe the GLO’s administration had a disparate racial impact on funding.”
The complainants focused on Houston and Harris County not winning any awards during the Harvey Round One competition. Another section of the 22-page legal brief deals with why. To a large degree, not winning any awards in Round One resulted from the Benefit/Cost Analyses of submitted projects. Smaller jurisdictions just had lower costs per beneficiary. (See page 13.)
For instance, one project submitted by the City would have benefitted fewer than 10,000 people, but cost $94 million. In other words, the City was seeking 18% of Round One funds to benefit less than a half-percent of the City’s population.
HUD determined that “Houston’s poor performance in the Harvey Competition is attributable, at least in part, to its expensive, low-impact project proposals.”
Conclusion
“The facts of this case do not suggest that GLO intentionally discriminated against any racial or ethnic group through its administration of the CDBG-MIT funds,” said the final ruling.
The complainants have 30 days to file an appeal. Click here to read HUD’s complete 22-page finding.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/29/26
3075 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.
Update on Two Kingwood Flood-Mitigation Projects
1/28/26 – People living near the Kingwood Diversion Ditch and the Woodridge Village/Taylor Gully area have been asking what happened to their flood-mitigation projects. Good news: Both are moving forward. Here’s some historical context, where the projects currently stand, and what comes next.
Kingwood Diversion Ditch
The Kingwood Diversion Ditch splits off Bens Branch between Northpark Drive and the new St. Martha Catholic Church. It runs down the western side of North and South Woodland Hills past the fire station on Kingwood Drive. Then it continues south past Trailwood, Deer Ridge Park and finally joins the San Jacinto West Fork at River Grove Park. Along the way, it goes under four bridges.
Neel-Schaffer completed a preliminary engineering study in early 2025. The company recommended widening the Diversion Ditch and building a new outfall to West Fork west of River Grove Park. They projected the cost to be almost $41 million, but it would reduce the floodplain size by 177 acres and remove 34 structures from the floodplain.
The improvements would divert enough stormwater from Bens Branch to take it from a 2-year level of service to a 100-year level. That’s good news for the merchants in Kingwood Town Center. They all flooded during Harvey and 12 seniors died at Kingwood Village Estates.
The project almost died last year when Democratic County Commissioners voted to redeploy all remaining flood bond funds to the highest scoring projects on their equity prioritization framework. However, they later reconsidered that motion. The Diversion Ditch already had federal partnership funds allocated to it thanks to the work of Congressman Dan Crenshaw. His earmark for the Walnut Lane Bridge saved it from the chopping block.
Now the project is moving again. In late 2025, Harris County awarded a contract to Halff Associates, Inc. for the final engineering and design of the project.
In its January 22 board meeting, the Texas Water Development Board authorized an agreement with Harris County Flood Control District for a $5 million grant that State Representative Charles Cunningham obtained during the 89th Legislative Regular Session. (See item 12.)
HCFCD spokesperson Emily Woodell said the District expects the design work to start by March 1. She also says that additional funding will come from EPA grants to cover design and the 2018 bond to cover construction. Woodell expects construction to begin in late 2027.
Woodridge Village/Taylor Gully
The Kingwood Area Drainage Analysis ranked the Diversion Ditch and the Woodridge Village/Taylor Gully Project as the two most important projects in Kingwood because they help the largest numbers of people.
The 270-acre Woodridge Village Project is the aborted Perry Homes development purchased by Harris County and the City of Houston in 2020. It lies north of Sherwood Trails and Elm Grove in Montgomery County. Except for a few acres on the extreme western end, virtually all of it drains into Taylor Gully.
Perry’s contractors clearcut the Woodridge site starting in 2017 and sloped it toward Taylor Gully. Then before they installed detention ponds and drainage systems, runoff from the site flooded up to 600 homes twice in 2019. Residents had not even finished repairing their homes from the first flood in May, when they flooded again in September. A massive class action lawsuit resulted in a substantial settlement for the victims.
Before purchasing Woodridge Village from Perry, HCFCD stipulated that they had to finish building all of the stormwater detention basins planned as part of the buildout. However, those detention basins only brought the property up to pre-Atlas 14 standards. They fell 40% short of Atlas 14 requirements.
Shortly after the purchase, HCFCD started building an additional detention basin to bring the total detention capacity onsite up to and beyond Atlas-14 requirements. Sprint Sand and Clay began the work under an excavation and removal (E&R) contract. E&R contracts give HCFCD a head start on production. They let contractors begin removing dirt for a nominal fee and then sell it on the open market to make up their profit margin.
However, when HCFCD applied for a HUD CDBG-MIT grant through the Texas General Land Office, HCFCD was forced to pause the project. That’s because projects cannot change while the GLO and HUD consider a grant request.
HCFCD applied for grants to:
Fast forward: GLO and HUD approved grants for $42 million in October, 2025. HCFCD put the project out for bids. And proposals are due by Feb. 16, 2026. See screen capture from County purchasing below.
Even though the bid above is listed as “channel conveyance improvements,” according to Woodell, it also includes the Woodridge Village Stormwater Detention Basin(s). “Since Woodridge mitigates Taylor Gully, those two projects have been combined forever after,” she said.
The HUD/GLO deadline for finishing the project is March 31, 2028. That’s do-able if everyone hustles.
Additional funding for this project came from U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw. He secured federal funding for Taylor Gully improvements in March 2022. And Representative Charles Cunningham helped secure state funding through the TWDB.
More news to follow when we see the bids.
Posted by Bob Rehak on January 28, 2026
3074 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Trouble Researching Flood Risk of a Home?
1/27/26 – Are you having trouble researching the flood risk of a home? Yours or perhaps one you are considering buying? Worried that your flood risk may have increased over time? If so, the Houston Chronicle wants to hear from you.
The Chronicle is conducting a brief survey about flood risk. Investigative reporter Yilun Cheng found that 65,000 homes have been sold in Houston area floodplains since Harvey.
During Harvey, 154,170 homes in Harris County alone flooded. That was an estimated 9- to 12-percent of all the structures in the county. See page 13 of HCFCD’s final Harvey Report.
Of the 154,170 homes that flooded, 48,850 were within the 1% (100-yr) floodplain, 34,970 within the .2% (500-yr) floodplain, and 70,370 were outside of any floodplain – almost half the total of those within floodplains.
That troubling percentage prompted a re-examination of floodplain assumptions and flood risk after Harvey. The result was a massive effort by Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to update flood maps. But 8.5 years later, after repeated delays, new maps still haven’t been released. Compare the two timelines below.
And that’s one way you get 65,000 homes sold in floodplains since Harvey. But those are only the floodplains that we know about. That number could easily increase when new maps showing the expanded floodplains are released.
Has Uncertainty Affected Your Flood Risk?
That uncertainty, coupled with the constant need to build, buy or sell homes, could be laying the groundwork for the next natural disaster. The uncertainty makes it difficult to assess a home’s true flood risk and determine whether that’s a risk you’re willing to take.
Are you uninsured? Underinsured? Could you afford flood insurance on top of a mortgage if you suddenly found yourself in a floodplain? Could you afford a total loss if you flooded without insurance?
“Many homeowners don’t learn their property is in a high-risk area until after they purchase it,” said Cheng. “Repeated delays in the release of new flood maps have exacerbated that problem.”
“We’re looking to speak with residents across the Houston metro area, including Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Galveston and other nearby counties. Your story could help others understand the risks and may be featured in our reporting,” says Cheng.
The Chronicle questionnaire has about a half dozen short, factual questions that should take no more than five minutes to answer. Please help. You do not need to subscribe to the Chronicle to participate in the survey.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/27/26
3073 Days since Hurricane Harvey