On January 15, 2025, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that the Texas General Land Office (GLO) “intentionally discriminated” against Black and Hispanic communities, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in the distribution of flood mitigation funding following Hurricane Harvey in 2017. HUD determined that GLO’s actions unjustly diverted critical disaster relief funds away from minority communities. Because that same evidence suggested GLO had also violated the Fair Housing Act, HUD escalated the complaint to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for enforcement action.
Despite sustaining the brunt of flooding damage from Harvey, Houston and adjacent Harris County–with substantial Black and Hispanic populations living in hardest hit areas–were virtually excluded from receiving flood mitigation funding. In 2021, Relman Colfax filed a HUD complaint on behalf of Texas Housers, a nonprofit advocacy organization that models solutions to the state’s critical housing and community development problems, and Northeast Action Collective, a group of community members improving environmental conditions and increasing quality of life in their Northeast Houston neighborhoods. The complaint alleged that GLO discriminated based on race and national origin when administering its Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) program.
HUD’s investigation exposed an undeniable “pattern or practice of discrimination,” suggesting GLO knowingly designed funding criteria to disadvantage urban Black and Hispanic communities while favoring Whiter, rural areas that sustained far less damage. HUD estimates 600,000 Texans from communities of color were denied flood protection they desperately needed. In a letter sent to state officials, HUD detailed evidence establishing that GLO knowingly denied communities critical funding, and “compounded the harm” that residents suffered from Hurricane Harvey.
Relman Colfax has represented Texas Housers in a number of matters seeking to compel GLO to repair its discriminatory distribution of flood mitigation funds. In 2010, the firm helped Texas Housers secure a sweeping settlement agreement involving discriminatory distribution of CDBG-MIT funds following Hurricanes Ike and Dolly.
With these repetitive patterns of discrimination, it is imperative that leaders at all levels act now to remedy this civil rights violation and that the DOJ ensures equality and safety for Houston’s Black and Hispanic residents. Those whose lives were devastated by Harvey should have received the benefits of mitigation funding they were owed years ago and affected communities urgently need equitable disaster relief funding and infrastructure investment to safeguard their homes, health, and futures now.
Relman Colfax’s team consists of Sara Pratt and Michael Allen.
Additional information is available here: Texas Housers v. State of Texas and Texas General Land Office.