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As Houston City Council Members, our responsibility is to make decisions that improve the quality of life and safety of Houstonians in the most responsible and fiscally prudent way possible. That’s why, when faced with a $350 million disaster recovery action plan, we refused to support an amendment to redirect $50 million away from critical disaster recovery tools that benefited all Houstonians to one a program for a lucky few.
The amendment proposed raising home repair funding from $50 million to $100 million—split evenly between single-family and multi-family homes. While the intention was noble, the extra dollars would have come from the budget set aside for generators at critical city facilities. These generators power community centers, sewage lift stations, and police and fire stations—places of refuge for most, but lifelines for vulnerable and at-risk communities when disaster strikes.
We are deeply sympathetic to Houstonians whose homes were damaged by storms. But we voted no for three key reasons:
Generators are vital for disaster recovery.
When the power goes out, safety risks increase dramatically. Community centers must be able to provide shelter, and first responders need reliable facilities to do their jobs. We must continue to make sure that our water and wastewater plants have electricity to provide these services as well. A University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs survey found that 88% of registered voters in Harris County are concerned about outages lasting more than a day this summer. That is not an abstract fear—it is based on lived experience. For the first time, we have an opportunity to obtain generators, and cutting the funding jeopardizes public safety at the very moment Houstonians need it most.
The average cost of one home repair in the program is $200,000.
Currently, the program doesn’t just fix storm damage—it often rebuilds entire homes. Instead of only fixing storm damage, the City pays for repairs needed in the rest of the house, whether the damage was due to a storm or not. What might begin as a small roof repair can become a complete home rebuild. This drives the average cost per home to about $200,000, per Mayor Whitmire’s office. For $50 million in single family home repairs, that would mean that we are only able to assist approximately 250 homes. In a city of 2.3 million people, while incredibly impactful to the small number of people receiving the benefit, it is negligible for the rest of the population. With smarter policies, we could stretch these dollars further and help more people. Until those changes are made, pouring in more money only perpetuates inefficiency.
Furthermore, the multi-family housing aspect of this program is even more problematic. Multi-family housing essentially means apartment complexes. While we must make sure that people have safe places to live, apartment complexes are businesses that almost without exception should have had insurance for protection. Businesses are crucial to our economy, and apartments are no exception; however, paying to essentially remodel an apartment complex with this money does not help prepare anyone for future storms.
The actual need is unclear.
Damage estimates are made immediately after storms, but we are now more than a year out from the derecho and Hurricane Beryl. Many homeowners and multi-family owners have already completed repairs. Based on past storm data, the final need may be much lower than $100 million. The City of Houston still has $40 million in home repair funding from Winter Storm Uri that Houstonians can access for home damages that must be addressed as well. Scaling up to manage a program of this size could require additional staff and new systems—raising the risk of falling short on federal requirements and jeopardizing future HUD funding. We have already seen this exact scenario play out in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Although we know Mayor Whitmire and his administration will handle this process with care and accuracy, we do not know yet the scale on which we would need to increase this program in order meet the demands.
We continue to support Mayor Whitmire’s commitment towards disaster recovery and response, and he and his team have done a phenomenal job in recent storms to make sure that Houstonians were cared for. He faced a difficult task in shaping this action plan, and we commend him for listening to residents who called for home repair assistance. His decision to shift $50 million toward repairs—when the original plan had none—was a fair and thoughtful compromise. At this stage, however, $100 million does not advance our goal of preparing Houston for disasters. Given the choice of repairing 250 homes and an indeterminable number of private apartment complexes versus addressing needs for 2.3 million people, we chose the latter.
We remain committed to supporting Houstonians in times of crisis. But we must do it in a way that is sustainable, efficient, and does not undermine other critical recovery tools.
Amy Peck, Fred Flickinger, and Mary Nan Huffman are city council members.