Justice Department could investigate Texas GLO’s handling of Harvey recovery funds

AUSTIN – The Houston Chronicle reports that a complaint stemming from the Texas General Land Office’s allocation of Harvey disaster recovery funds, which originally awarded no money to Houston or Harris County from a $1 billion distribution, has been escalated to the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development asked the Justice Department on Wednesday to take action against the GLO after finding that it had violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against Black and Hispanic residents when it designed a competition to allocate the relief money. HUD’s review of the GLO’s funding process revealed that the state agency had engaged in a pattern of “discriminatory actions based on race and national origin,” wrote Ayelet Weiss, assistant general counsel for HUD’s Office of Fair Housing Enforcement, in a letter to the Justice Department.

In a separate letter sent to state officials, HUD told the GLO that it knowingly denied communities critical funding, and “compounded the harm” that residents suffered from Hurricane Harvey. The new correspondence affirmed HUD’s previous finding of descrimination in 2022 against the GLO. At that time, the Justice Department said it would defer consideration of the matter until HUD wrapped up its fair housing investigation. In a statement, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said “political activists” embedded in HUD by the Biden administration have made false discrimination claims against the GLO for years. “Last time HUD sent this political stunt to the DOJ, the fake claims were rejected for lacking substance – in less than 48 hours,” Buckingham said. “The fact is, the HUD-approved plan overwhelmingly benefited minorities and there simply was no discrimination. No other state has performed as efficiently and effectively as Texas in providing disaster recovery and mitigation funding to communities and residents. Our only goal is to serve those we are supposed to serve and do it well.” Former mayor and now U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner said Wednesday that while he was glad the findings were being sent to the Justice Department, he was frustrated by the amount of time it took to hold the GLO accountable. Houston residents whose lives were devastated by Harvey should have received federal aid years ago, Turner said, and instead the GLO diverted those funds to communities in lesser need.