Houston leaders criticize HUD approval of GLO flood aid distribution

Mayor Sylvester Turner criticized the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's approval of an amendment to the Texas General Land Office State Action Plan as a sanctioning of "discrimination."

Turner expressed his disappointment in the Friday decision to accept GLO's plan to send $750 million to Harris County in flood mitigation, just 10 months after both the city and county were barred from receiving any of the $4.3 billion post-Hurricane Harvey flood aid.

"Only a few weeks ago, HUD found that the GLO discriminated against Black and brown communities when it initially denied federal Hurricane Harvey funds to Houston and Harris County," Turner stated, citing a March 4 HUD report that found discrimination in the GLO's Hurricane Harvey State Mitigation Competition to distribute flood aid.

In a a joint press release, U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Al Green and Sylvia Garcia on Saturday called for Justice Department intervention, citing discrimination against the Houston residents if any aid is spent under the current distribution system.

In their report earlier this month, HUD found that two criteria the GLO used to score projects submitted for funding by cities and counties had disproportionate impacts on Black and Hispanic communities.

The GLO used a metric that made it less likely for large jurisdictions to receive funding and gave higher scores based on the percentage of a jurisdiction's residents who would benefit from a project rather than the number of people who would benefit.