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Hurricane Harvey victims in Houston denied expected cash relief
The Texas Land Office confirms that hundreds, if not thousands, of Houstonians displaced by Hurricane Harvey never received the cash relief they were entitled to.
HOUSTON - FOX 26 has learned the City of Houston still has access to more than $200 million untapped federal relief dollars it has yet to distribute to victims.
That accounting comes from directly Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham via a letter to Houston's newly sworn Mayor John Whitmire.
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In August of 2017, the colossal downpours of Hurricane Harvey inundated the greater Houston area.
In response to the second most financially devastating storm in U.S. history, federal lawmakers funneled nearly $1.3 billion through the Texas General Land Office for the City of Houston to relieve the suffering.
And yet more than six years later, many of those dollars have never reached the folks who needed them most.
"I know people who have not gotten the money," said Harvey victim Prachet Bhatt.
A Doctoral candidate at the University of Houston, Bhatt recalls clearly the floodwaters which engulfed the Appian Way Apartments on North MacGregor and the dictate extended two years later when the City of Houston obtained federal Harvey relief funds to buy and tear down the complex.
"We would be forcibly re-located, and we would be compensated for our troubles and our move," said Bhatt.
Bhatt is referring to more than $40 million made available to the city through the "Uniform Relocation Act" - money meant to ease the transition of residents displaced from flood-prone properties marked for repurposing or demolition.
And yet what has unfolded in the years since, is a flood of frustration, and just a trickle of pay-outs through the City of Houston's Department of Housing.
"They really weren't interested in providing these funds and I am really not sure why. My only course of action was to continue filing complaints over and over and over again," said Bhatt.
Turns out, Bhatt's concerns have been confirmed by the Texas General Land Office, which reviewed relocation aid earmarked for folks at four Harvey damaged complexes purchased by the City with federal dollars.
The GLO says of the nearly 1,000 residents evicted from the buildings, only 153 or 15%, have received the financial aid to which they were clearly entitled.
"The General Land Office was shocked to learn renters were kicked out of their homes and onto the street by the City of Houston. Once the GLO learned of this failure to comply with federal law, our agency sprang into action to help those displaced by the City of Houston and provide them with the assistance needed to get back on their feet," said Buckingham in a statement to FOX 26.
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In an effort to distribute the aid, the GLO is searching for former residents forcibly displaced from the Spring Valley Apartments at 11810 Chimney Rock, Monticello Square Apartments at 5312 Calrewood Drive, Biscayne at City View 17030 Imperial Valley Drive and Appian Way Apartments at 3200 N. MacGregor Way.
Former residents are asked to call the GLO's Recovery toll free Hotline at 1-844-893-8937 or email cdr@recovery.texas.gov
The outreach from Buckingham to Houston's new Mayor was telegraphed in Mayor Whitmire's inaugural address Tuesday.
"We are going to reach across the aisle and work with Austin. Houston can get greater resources out of the Land Commissioner Office under my leadership because Dawn Buckingham, a former Senate colleague, has already said let's sit down and improve the realtionship," said Whitmire.