The details
Commissioners unanimously voted to add $7,706,250 from reserve funds to the Project Recovery Post-Disaster Buyout & Relocation program’s Special Assistance Funding Effort. This program grants funding to undocumented immigrants living in mandatory buyout areas, according to the Harris County Project Recovery website.
“In my judgment, immigration status should have no bearing on one's ability to recover from a climate disaster, or to live in a healthy home ... less vulnerable [to] flooding,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said.
The breakdown
The funding will be used to help an estimated 49 residents of the Greens Road mobile home community who do not qualify for full or partial assistance from the federal Uniform Relocation Act, according to June 27 commissioners court documents. A total of 83 residents from mobile home communities are expected to need SAFE funds.
With the added funding, the residents’ available benefits were upped to:
- $210,000 to replace a resident's home
- $60,000 in rental assistance
In early 2021, Harris County leaders developed the Mandatory Buyout Program to provide communities with a “history of severe, repetitive flooding the opportunity to move to a safer location,” according to June 27 commissioners court documents.
At commissioners’ May 16 meeting, nine people spoke about the county’s buyout program, including residents impacted by the program.
“We need more of your help,” Perla Garcia said. “We are in your prison. We are only immigrant people. There [are] a lot of people sick with cancer, with diabetes. People are under stress, and they are not feeling well, and ... people are not treating them well.”
Quote of note
After approving additional funding for the SAFE program on June 27, commissioners thanked the residents who spoke up.
“Anyone that sat in that courtroom for the last several months, they listened to the heartbreaking stories of what's happening because [of] this program; this is only right,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey said on June 27. “This is an issue that we created when we took those homes. It's only right that we take this step and make it right.”
