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By Juan A. Lozano

The Associated Press

HOUSTON 鈥� The faded and weathered construction permits still taped to Houston resident Mal Moses’ front door are reminders of the difficulties he faced in trying to get his mold-infested walls and leaky roof repaired after聽Hurricane Harvey struck in 2017.

But living in the Trinity-Houston Gardens neighborhood has always been hard, Moses said. His family endured racial slurs and harassment as some of the first Black residents to move in during the late 1960s, he said. When white residents left, he added, resources such as consistent trash collection and a properly working drainage system seemed to disappear as well.

In Harvey’s wake, Moses, 65, expected denial of government help. And he certainly wasn’t surprised by federal officials’ conclusion this year that the state had discriminated against minorities, particularly Black residents, in how it distributed hurricane-related flood relief money.

鈥淚t was just another example (of discrimination) for me,鈥� said Moses, who ultimately received help from local nonprofit West Street Recovery with home repairs. 鈥淚 wasn’t shocked that it was being done because I experienced it firsthand growing up.鈥�

Texas had an Aug. 26 deadline to enter into a voluntary agreement to address an investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development聽that in March found the state had violated聽the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by causing there 鈥渢o be disproportionately less funding available to benefit minority residents than was available to benefit white residents鈥� in how it distributed more than $2 billion to fund flood mitigation projects after Harvey. That deadline passed without any resolution to the dispute.

The Texas General Land Office, or GLO, which oversees distribution of the funding, says its actions were not unlawful. In a letter sent Aug. 25 to HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said he did not plan to force the GLO to enter into any agreement because HUD had not proven that the state agency had discriminated based on race or national origin.

鈥淗UD should close this case without following through on the threats made in your letter, which would only slow funding for Texans who truly need disaster mitigation,鈥� Abbott stated.

HUD has threatened to refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible legal action.

鈥淲e are considering our options and have no further comment at this time,鈥� HUD spokesman Michael Burns stated in an email.

The deadline passed amid the five-year anniversary of Harvey,聽which inundated the Houston area with torrential rain聽for days, flooding more than 150,000 homes and 300,000 vehicles. The storm, which first made landfall more than 200 miles southwest of Houston near Corpus Christi on Aug. 25, 2017, killed 68 people and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas. Many residents still have not recovered.

In an April letter to HUD, the land office’s attorneys defended how the funds were awarded, saying of the 108 projects that received money, 59 percent served minority-majority populations and of the 1.5 million Texans benefiting from the projects, more than 1 million were Hispanic.

鈥淗UD’s objections are politically motivated and are factually and legally baseless,鈥� the attorneys stated. 鈥淕LO did not engage in discrimination.鈥�

Many Houston-area residents and officials聽were outraged when they learned the land office’s initial distribution of $1 billion didn’t include one cent for their hard-hit communities. Other cities with large minority populations also flooded by Harvey, including Beaumont, Corpus Christi and Port Arthur along the Texas Gulf Coast, also got no funding.

A聽Houston Chronicle investigation聽found the land office’s initial $1 billion distribution disproportionately flowed to inland counties with less damage than to coastal communities that bore the brunt of Harvey.

Where the money was spent is 鈥渟o clearly not where the harm was done and where the risk is for future disasters,鈥� said Ben Martin, research director for Texas Housers, an Austin-based nonprofit that joined Houston group Northeast Action Collective in filing the initial complaint with HUD.

After bipartisan criticism of the lack of funding for the Houston area, the land office awarded $750 million to Harris County, home to the nation’s fourth-largest city, but still nothing for Houston.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Aug. 24 urged HUD to enforce its ruling against the state, saying the federal agency’s integrity 鈥渋s on the line.鈥�

Moses, who is part of the Northeast Action Collective, said that in Harvey’s wake, he had to live in his home, full of mold and dust, while it was repaired and as he underwent treatment for lung cancer. During the two-year repair process, his mother, who shared the house with him and adored it, had to live elsewhere.

She died four days after she was finally able to return in 2020.

While Moses’ house is in fairly good shape now, that is not the case for many of his neighbors’ homes, he said. Residents are either struggling聽to fully restore their homes or聽recover financially聽from repairs they paid for themselves, he said. They also worry if enough has been done聽to protect their real estate from the next storm.

鈥淚’m just holding on, holding on … and I’m hoping that the (federal) government steps in … and makes sure the money gets appropriated correctly,鈥� Moses said.