Opinions: Houston’s Natural Disaster Recovery for All or a Few
When analyzing the debate of prioritization of various communities in Houston for disaster relief, Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times, Rebecca Hersher and Robert Benincasa of the National Public Radio (NPR), and Iris Gonzales of the Houston Chronicle present the most important and relevant arguments and solutions to the social inequality present in Houston’s disaster recovery.
In the New York Times article, Flavelle focuses on the response to Houston’s new disaster recovery plan after Hurricane Harvey and explores the criticisms of the new disaster plan. Flavelle is in favor of the new disaster plan as it approached flood recovery by prioritizing the homes that have the hardest time recovering from the disaster; however, he points out the political resistance derived from such a plan. Given the political divide present in Texas, with Houston being primarily Democratic in a Republican state, there is no surprise that there is some political resistance from a disaster plan put forth by a Democratic relief commission. Flavelle reports that those who live in wealthier neighborhoods believe that Houston’s disaster plan should follow the traditional government cost-benefit analysis in which priority should go to the (predominantly white) communities whose homes are valued higher and generate more tax revenue that provide for the city, opposing the new disaster plan that helps the minority communities with low-valued homes more. While this new implemented disaster plan focuses flood relief towards the low-income and minority communities, this disaster plan ignores the difficulty of receiving relief for the minority communities; therefore, I believe it seems a little incomplete.
Hersher and Benincasa addresses the difficulty mentioned above by exploring how federal money allocated during disaster relief favors the rich and ends up making them even richer. Hersher and Benincasa claim that “disasters exacerbate wealth inequality” through two opposing stories of victims of Hurricane Harvey as well as a summary analysis of the disproportionality of FEMA’s buyout disaster plan. Based on FEMA buyout data, Hersher and Benincasa concluded that FEMA have disproportionately offered buyouts to whiter communities. They strengthen their argument of disproportionality in federal disaster relief by recounting the experiences of the Papadopoulos and Evans families after Hurricane Harvey. While both families started with nothing after the hurricane, only the Papadopoulos family were able to financially recover from the effects of the hurricane. It is important to note that while both families only lived a few miles from each other, the Papadopoulos have a higher income and lived in a higher valued neighborhood as opposed to the Evans who lived in a low-income neighborhood. Based on the income and home values, the Papadopoulos received more federal money through an easy process while the Evans family struggled to get any federal relief through the same programs the Papadopoulos applied for. While no solution was explicitly stated in the article, I believe that the issue can and should be resolved in order to help those low-income and minority communities; the federal government should make adjustments to their relief programs in order to accommodate for the vulnerabilities and needs of the poorer families who are equally hit as hard by disaster as much as those wealthier families.
In the Houston Chronicle, Gonzales emphasizes the necessity for equity in relief plans, especially for low-income households and minority communities. With federal relief money traditionally being mandated to properties of high value, disregarding the amount of people who are actually protected; this traditional plan leave those who don’t live in high valued property at risk. Gonzales advocates for equity and calls for a change in the dangerous patterns of forgetting at risk communities to favor the wealthy. Like Flavelle, Gonzales agrees that the new $2.5 billion disaster plan by the Harris County commission promotes that equity after disaster; however, she believes that Harris County leaders should continue with that equity in all other public processes since it is imperative for Houston to solve its flooding problems.
With all three articles, so far, I believe that the most effective approach to get relief for all is a combination of both adjustments to the federal relief programs as well as the Harris County commission’s new disaster plan which prioritizes the families whose recovery is the hardest.
