FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 11, 2019

Contact:
Rachel Zummo, Attorney, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) (512) 374 2746 or rzummo@trla.org
Nancy Nusser, Communications Director, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) (410) 934 9588 or nnusser@trla.org

Texas and Feds Sued for Categorically Denying Disaster Aid to Tenants Despite Having $5 Billion Available for Housing Needs

Policy Demonstrates Intentional Bias Against Families of Color

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas tenants displaced by Hurricane Harvey filed suit Friday against state and federal agencies for employing discriminatory policies that have made them disproportionately ineligible for disaster assistance. The tenants were forced out of their rented homes by damage from the storm and have been unable to apply for long-term state recovery aid.

Through Texas’s Plan for Disaster Recovery, the General Land Office (GLO) is administering more than $5 billion in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds to assist Harvey survivors who continue to have “unmet housing needs.” The financial resources are available to help homeowners repair houses damaged by Harvey and pay for other disaster-related costs, while rental recovery funds are available to developers and property owners. 

But tenants, who are disproportionately Hispanic and Black in the counties hit by Harvey, are not eligible for any of those funds. In the 49 Harvey-impacted counties, 56 percent of black occupants of homes are tenants and 46 percent of Hispanic occupants are tenants. In comparison, only about 27 percent of white occupants  are tenants.  

“State and federal agencies discriminated against Hispanic and Black Harvey survivors by making homeowner status a prerequisite to eligibility for long-term recovery assistance,” said Rachel Zummo, an attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) and co-counsel in the case along with the Dallas-based firm Daniel & Beshara. “Hispanic and Black tenants were impacted by Harvey just as much as white homeowners, yet they do not have access to the billions of dollars in assistance.”

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi against Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and the GLO, which developed the policies set out in the Plan for Disaster Recovery, and against U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and HUD, which approved the plan. 

The plaintiffs who are ineligible for assistance under the Texas plan include Ruth Ortiz, a Hispanic resident of Victoria who had to move out of her $750 per month rental home after Harvey left four windows broken and the back door damaged enough so that it couldn’t be locked. Ortiz moved her and her children into a $1,000 per month apartment using temporary rental assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). When that aid ended, she and her children had to move to a less expensive place farther away from her job, her children’s school, and the doctors who treat her son, who has a brain tumor. 

“Our lives became chaos after Harvey,” said Ortiz. “And we’re still not completely back on our feet. We needed more than just a few months of assistance from FEMA.”

Brenda Jones, who is Black, had to leave her Aransas Pass rental apartment because of water damage and mold due to Harvey. Using temporary FEMA assistance, she lived out of her car and in hotel rooms until March 2018. She continues to struggle financially because of disaster-related expenses and has lost her car to repossession. Corpus Christi resident Vanessa Wharton, who is Black, couldn’t stay in her apartment after Harvey, because water continued to come in through the damaged ceiling. She was unable to find an apartment at the same cost of her previous home, and she continues to struggle with other Harvey-related expenses. Likewise, Sherry Butler, a Black tenant from Rockport, was displaced by Harvey and now struggles to afford the basics, including the cost of utilities. 

Under the state plan, assistance for “unmet housing needs” can include rental aid, if homeowners must leave their houses, as well as reimbursement for home repairs and utility assistance. 

“Tenants, even though they are often the most financially-strapped, are completely left out of the picture,” Zummo said. “Once again, Texas has created policies that clearly impact Texan families of color in favor of others.”

Established in 1970, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc. (TRLA) is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to low-income Texans in 68 southwest counties. TRLA’s mission is to promote dignity, self-sufficiency, safety and access to justice for low-income Texans by providing high-quality legal assistance and related educational services.