Dominic Anthony Walsh/Houston Public Media
Ronald Demery’s Houston home was damaged by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Hurricane Beryl in 2024.
Two years after the derecho wind event and Hurricane Beryl tore through Houston, city officials greenlit a $45 million repair and reconstruction program for single-family homes damaged by the storms.
Under the guidelines approved Wednesday, households earning 80% or less of the area median income are eligible to apply for up to $100,000 in repairs or up to $300,000 for reconstruction.
“The derecho was considered the most damaging wind event to affect Houston in nearly 25 years,” the agenda item from the city’s housing department stated. “Hurricane Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, producing life-threatening floods. Both catastrophic weather events resulted in extensive damage to homes, infrastructure, and businesses.”
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The program’s funding comes from a $315 million award issued to the city by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) after the storms.
If not for advocacy by community members, housing advocates and Tiffany Thomas, chair of the city council’s housing committee, the program would not exist.
Mayor John Whitmire’s initial proposal wouldn’t have allocated any of HUD’s funding toward housing. After pushback, he conceded to Thomas and raised the housing allocation to $100 million, including the single-family program along with a multi-family initiative.
RELATED: Houston City Council approves amended disaster recovery plan with $100 million for housing repairs
Still, that amount will alleviate but not erase the damage caused by the storms. In 2024, HUD estimated the city faced $229 million in necessary housing repair, reconstruction and property losses — with nearly 4,000 households found to have “serious unmet housing needs.”
If the funding flows entirely toward home reconstruction, less than 200 households could receive assistance through the newly approved program. Council member Julian Ramirez delayed the item last week.
“I think we should be getting more for our money and trying to help more families,” Ramirez said Wednesday, though he voted in favor of the program. “This is a philosophical difference with our housing leadership.”
The $315 million allocation is also supporting a large investment in backup power generators at city facilities, the operation of the city’s new residential service center for homeless people and debris removal operations.
RELATED: City of Houston scales back plans to install power generators as HUD secretary celebrates progress
The new disaster recovery programs are administered by the city’s housing and community development department. Housing director Mike Nichols said applications were “anticipated to open in early August.”