Mayor Whitmire says city will amend disaster recovery plan, allocate $50M grant for housing needs

(Andrea Slaydon, Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.)

HOUSTON – Mayor John Whitmire announced Tuesday that the City of Houston will be updating its Draft Action Plan for Disaster Recovery following the 2024 Derecho and Hurricane Beryl, with a $50 million proposal allocated to support housing needs.

The proposed $50 million would go toward rebuilding homes and improving housing conditions, Whitmire explained during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

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He stated that improving housing conditions has always been important to his administration, but there is a process to follow and many needs to balance.

Whitmire mentioned that HUD wanted money to be put into generators, as the city has identified at least 100 sensitive locations that provide essential services and also work with the homeless.

Whitmire noted that the proposals are being modified due to the state giving the city at least 200 police vehicles.

“Some of the proposals are being modified,” the mayor said. “We had some emergency vehicles in the proposal. Well, we didn’t know at that time that the state was going to give us 200 police cars.”

He continued, “The idea that John Whitmire or anyone on this team would not make home repairs a priority is and would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. The bottom line is we have more needs than revenue.”

Whitmire says this discussion wouldn’t even be happening if the city had not received $315 million from the federal government.