RM Quality Construction<\/a>, witnessed home after home that desperately needed rehabilitation or to be torn down and rebuilt.<\/p>\n\u201cI saw extension cords running everywhere,\u201d Mendoza said of another home he recently finished building. \u201cIt was musty. The AC wasn\u2019t fully running. There was nothing really functioning in the house. She had a couple window units, but it was pretty rough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across town in Sunnyside, Audrey Jordan\u2019s story echoed the Williams\u2019 experience. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had a bucket in the garage because I could look up to the sky,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cI unplugged everything all the time. I didn\u2019t go to sleep with the electric heaters on, the air conditioner, anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Massive Recovery Effort<\/p>\n
The Texas General Land Office\u2019s (GLO) rebuilding initiative has transformed communities across Southeast Texas, with 9,355 homes rebuilt for families impacted by Hurricane Harvey. <\/p>\n
In Houston and Harris County alone, 2,770 homes have been completed, with just two properties remaining in the recovery program.<\/p>\n
CountyHomes Rebuilt by GLOBrazoria205Chambers45Galveston765Liberty171Montgomery106Walker30Austin13Colorado34Fort Bend107Matagorda121Waller38Wharton108<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done about 13,000 houses in various different programs helping folks recover across different disasters,\u201d said Brittany Eck of the Texas GLO.<\/p>\n
The Cost of Rebuilding<\/p>\n
For many families, the program represented their only hope for recovery. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t afford to do what needed to be did,\u201d James Jackson Sr. said of their situation. <\/p>\n
According to Mendoza, the cost to repair many of these homes exceeded their value.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe engineer does a structural assessment and when they say that the cost to repair far exceeds the value of the house, that\u2019s when they qualify for a new house,\u201d Mendoza explained.<\/p>\n
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham acknowledged the lengthy timeline while expressing optimism about future disaster response. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople aren\u2019t necessarily impressed with our timeliness, but the process is the process in administering a federal program,\u201d Buckingham said. \u201cI think we will see improvements with Beryl all over what we saw with Harvey.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Houston closes this chapter of Hurricane Harvey recovery, another chapter is already opening. <\/p>\n
The state, along with Houston and Harris County, is starting to accept applications for damage from last year\u2019s derecho and Hurricane Beryl.<\/p>\n
For families like the Williams and Jordans, these new homes represent more than just shelter. They symbolize resilience and hope. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think in 2025 I\u2019d have a new house,\u201d Jordan reflected, standing in her finished home. \u201cWith God, all things are possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Jacqueline Williams stood in disbelief at the entrance of her new home in Houston\u2019s Sharpstown neighborhood,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[12246,11109,405,13668,56,58,57,13667,6607,13666,251,8465,12977,27,13665,172],"class_list":["post-17555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-derecho","tag-fema","tag-harris-county","tag-housing-and-urban-development","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-hud","tag-hurricane-beryl","tag-hurricane-harvey","tag-local-news","tag-sharpstown","tag-sunnyside","tag-texas","tag-texas-general-land-office","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17555","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=17555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}