Mobile home community near Bush Intercontinental will receive $7.7 million for home relocation

Houston Public Media
PATRICIA ORTIZ
POSTED ONJUNE 29, 2023, 3:55 PM

Residents from the Greens Road Mobile Home Community will receive $7.7 million approved by Harris County Commissioners Court for a relocation and buyout program.

Harris County's Post Disaster Relocation and Buyout Program is meant to increase the safety of residents and businesses in areas with repetitive flooding. Residents in areas with frequent flooding are required to sell their homes and relocate.

Commissioners Court had previously approved $3.3 million for residents in the Greens Road Mobile Home Community to receive during mandatory buyouts. Advocates with the Texas Organizing Project said low-income families were not being offered enough money to relocate.

Damaris Gonzalez with the organization said many of the households were being told they could have $10,000, or at best $30,000 for their home.

"[Currently,] they are homeowners. With $30,000, no one can find a house. With $10,000, you can't find a place to live for many months," she said in Spanish.

Gonzalez said numerous undocumented families had previously been told by county officials that they did not qualify for relocation funding programs. Maria Lopez is a resident who shared her own experience.

"Since last year, we've been living in constant fear, not knowing what's going to happen with my father and my mom and my family since they had told us we had to move because the area used to flood," Lopez said in Spanish.

A unanimous vote at Commissioners Court earlier this week increased the amount residents would receive.

"This is the first mandatory buyout program in the country," Commissioner Ellis said in a news release. "With this program, we are trying to keep families safe from increasingly severe flooding. But the county can't accomplish its goals if residents aren't compensated appropriately."

The newly approved funding will be used to provide residents with more money during buyouts and be distributed depending on the size of family.

"Regardless of immigration status, everyone in Harris County deserves safety from flooding and to be able to recover from increasingly severe climate disasters," Commissioner Ellis said in the release.