Officials with the Houston Housing and Community Development department announced a revised plan during the July 8 Budget and Fiscal Affairs meeting that would allocate $315 million in federal funding for disaster recovery efforts from two recent extreme weather disasters. The revised plan adds dollars toward housing efforts, but reduces the amount for emergency response and public safety programs.

The details

Houston is expected to receive nearly $315 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at a future date to support long-term recovery efforts following major disasters such as Hurricane Beryl and the 2024 derecho, according to a presentation at the meeting.

The revised plan will include allocating parts of the federal funding to needs such as public facilities, the city's homeless population and housing, including:
  • $151 million: Adding resilience measures toward public facilities to provide backup power during disasters
  • $50 million: Housing programs, specifically $30 million for multifamily housing and $20 million for single-family housing
  • $41 million: Toward the city's $70 million homeless initiative
  • $15 million: Emergency response and public safety programs to purchase emergency vehicles such as ambulances and high-water vehicles
Michael Nichols, the Housing and Community Development Department director, said the funding toward housing programs will help with construction, rehabilitation, acquisition and related expenses for the preservation of multifamily and single-family homes.

The original draft would have allocated $56 million toward emergency response and public safety programs to help purchase more police vehicles and ambulances. However, Steven David, the mayor’s Chief Strategy and Operations Officer, said during the meeting that the city decided to pull back $41 million as it is expected to receive $10 million from the Texas Legislature to purchase 200 police vehicles.


Nichols also said nearly $9 million that was supposed to be allocated toward the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance program was pulled back to allocate to housing. The program provides grants for disaster relief aid to state government agencies and local governments after a disaster, according to the FEMA website.

More context

Initially, no funding went toward housing, despite the original draft finding that over $229 million is needed for housing repair, reconstruction and personal property loss.

The decision to leave out housing costs by Mayor John Whitmire’s administration was met with backlash from Houston residents, many of whom commented during numerous public hearings throughout June.


Whitmire announced June 17 during a City Council public comment session that $50 million of the federal funding would be reallocated toward housing.

Next steps

City Council is expected to vote on the revised plan either July 23 or July 30, Nichols said. Once approved, HUD is expected to review and approve the plan by Oct. 3.