A decade after Ike, Houston still hasn't spent tens of millions it got to build affordable housing

[TexasTowelie]

Last edited Fri Mar 30, 2018, 07:02 AM - Edit history (1)

by Neena Satija, The Texas Tribune and Reveal


When Tory Gunsolley learned that his agency was about to receive $40 million in federal recovery funds in the wake of Hurricane Ike, he was thrilled.

It was 2011, and the Houston Housing Authority director had recently taken the job after leaving a similar position in Newark. He immediately realized that this new pot of money could be a “once in a generation opportunity” to address Houston’s desperate need for more affordable housing — a chance to build as many as 2,000 new units across Houston for lower-income people.

Seven years later — and a full decade after Ike, the disaster that brought those recovery dollars — Gunsolley chuckles when he thinks back to his original plans. Of the $45 million his agency eventually received from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), it has managed to build just 154 units of affordable housing with $12 million.

The rest of the money has been embroiled in a fierce fight over how to undo the nation’s legacy of racial segregation in housing.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/03/29/houston-texas-affordable-housing-hurricane-ike-harvey/