Houston approves $33.5M for Winter Storm Uri home repair program

Announced last July, the home repair program will provide eligible low- and moderate-income residents in single-family homes with reconstruction and reimbursement in response to a storm that left thousands of Houston residents with extended power and water outages in 2021.

Some context

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Houston $50 million to assist with recovery from Winter Storm Uri through a program called Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery, or CDBG-DR.

According to Houston’s 2023 Winter Storm Uri Action Plan, which details how the city will use CDBG-DR dollars for storm recovery, approximately 80% of the grant funding was budgeted for the home repair program. Other subsets of the $50 million aid package included a housing counseling program for renters and generator resilience, the document shows.

A University of Houston report estimated approximately 91% of Houston-area residents lost power during Winter Storm Uri and about 65% of the population was left without water during the storm. Additionally, an estimated 38% of Houstonians experienced bursting pipes and water damage, per the study.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated approximately $39.3 million in verified residential loss from the 2021 storm, with more than 102,000 households in Houston affected, according to the CDBG-DR action plan.

How it works

According to the city’s Housing and Community Development Department, or HCD, the single-family home repair program consists of two pathways.

• Pathway I provides up to $10,000 in reimbursement to eligible homeowners who made repairs to their primary residence due to damage from Winter Storm Uri.
• Pathway II provides up to $100,000 for rehabilitation or up to $300,000 for full reconstruction to households that have not yet repaired their primary residence.

HCD will prioritize applicants based on vulnerability, with a focus on households with elderly or disabled members and low-to-moderate incomes, per the program’s website.

Interested residents can access the application online, which must be submitted by mail or in person at HCD’s office located on the ninth floor of 2100 Travis St., Houston.

What they’re saying

Council member Tiffany Thomas, who chairs the Housing and Affordability Committee, encouraged residents to take full advantage of the funding and attend virtual office hours through HCD to learn more about the program.

“Although this item is about the contractors to do the work, the department is moving expeditiously to make sure that once [applicants] are approved, the repairs can start,” Thomas said during the meeting.

Council members Edward Pollard and Joaquin Martinez emphasized the importance of having parameters in place to ensure the contractors complete work that aligns with the homeowners’ expectations, noting complaints of botched projects from previous repair programs.

Thomas said the city’s home repair guidelines have since been improved to reflect more precise expectations. Agenda documents state the six firms approved Feb. 4 scored the highest during HCD’s request for proposals process.

“The [HCD] director was reassuring that we’re going to have contractors who are going to fulfill the job,” Martinez said. “What I would encourage everybody who ultimately goes through this process of home repairs is take pictures before, take pictures during and take pictures after, just to make sure we’re holding these contractors accountable.”