{"id":142880,"date":"2026-01-29T17:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/142880\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T17:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:47:09","slug":"feds-close-texas-harvey-funding-discrimination-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/142880\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds close Texas\u2019 Harvey funding discrimination case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has concluded there was \u201cno reasonable cause\u201d to believe Texas officials discriminated based on race or national origin when distributing $1 billion in Hurricane Harvey disaster aid.<\/p>\n

In a letter closing its civil rights investigation<\/a>, HUD said earlier findings that the Texas General Land Office, or GLO, unfairly favored rural white communities were \u201cfatally flawed \u2014 legally and factually.\u201d The letter stated that after reviewing more than 80,000 pages of documents, investigators found no evidence the GLO acted with discriminatory intent.<\/p>\n

The investigation spanned five years and two presidential administrations and examined the GLO\u2019s actions under then-Commissioner George P. Bush. During that time, housing advocates and local officials accused the agency of politicizing disaster funds, citing earlier federal conclusions that Texas discriminated against residents of color when allocating Harvey relief funds.<\/p>\n

Current Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham welcomed HUD\u2019s Wednesday decision, calling the allegations \u201cbaseless\u201d and \u201cpolitically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA simple fact remains uncontested \u2014 more than a million minorities \u2014 two thirds of the total population \u2014 benefited from this funding,\u201d Buckingham said in a press release.<\/a> \u201c100% are low-to-moderate income \u2014 surpassing the metrics required by HUD.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dispute traces back to Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which dumped more than 50 inches of rain on parts of the Houston area, flooded thousands of homes, and killed more than 80 people. <\/p>\n

Texas later received about $4.3 billion in federal disaster recovery aid.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the GLO distributed $1 billion through a competitive grant process for local governments. Houston and Harris County, despite suffering the most deaths and property damage, received none of that money. <\/p>\n

An investigation by the Houston Chronicle<\/a> found the money disproportionately went to inland counties with less storm damage and lower disaster risk.<\/p>\n

Amid bipartisan criticism from Houston politicians, Bush canceled a planned second competition and proposed awarding $750 million directly to Harris County. HUD launched its own investigation in June 2021 and in 2022 concluded the state had unfairly allocated funds.<\/p>\n

The land office revised its plan to distribute a second round of money totaling $1.2 billion. But a Texas Tribune investigation<\/a> found that, too, routed aid disproportionately to more white, inland counties at less risk of natural disasters.<\/p>\n

In early 2025, under the Biden administration, HUD reaffirmed its 2022 conclusion<\/a> and referred the case to the U.S. Department of Justice, citing the GLO\u2019s \u201csustained unwillingness\u201d to correct what HUD said violated the Fair Housing Act. Buckingham at the time dismissed the referral as politically driven.<\/p>\n

HUD\u2019s latest determination reverses those earlier findings and formally closes the case.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: The Texas General Land Office has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14609,405,56,13666,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-142880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-general-land-office","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-hurricane-harvey","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}