Flood Equity in Harris County Like water supply systems and fire and rescue services, flood protection is an essential service for the whole population. But in Harris County, TX, the policy approach to flood management has caused harm to a great percentage of the population. These harms include excess deaths, injuries, property damage, reduced property value, ineligibility for mitigation funding, and reduced well-being.
Authored by: Earthea Nance & Iris Gonzalez
© 2021 Coalition for Environment, Equity, and
Resilience (CEER)
Flood protection systems in Harris County currently discriminate by providing more investment and better service in whiter and wealthier areas. In our previous policy brief, we provided an improved method (FBI) for measuring and comparing baseline flood inequity in ways that are logical and accurate, and without errors that hide meaningful data. In this policy brief, we introduce a four-step framework for addressing the flood equity problem.
Authored by: Earthea Nance & Iris Gonzalez
© 2021 Coalition for Environment, Equity, and
Resilience (CEER)
CEER worked with several Northeast communities to provide questions to Harris County Flood Control District, who then submitted responses. To those questions. Those questions and responses are located in the link below.
Systemic racism and environmental racism directly caused hardships and injustices in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, many of which we are still dealing with today. Institutional and systemic racism touch all systems, including how we deal with flooding in Harris County. In this national moment of reckoning, our black, brown, Asian, communities of color and low-income neighborhoods deserve better.
Thank you for your giving back to CEER on this #GivingTuesdayNow. During this unprecedented time, CEER feels the urgency to address fairness and make sure race and class don’t determine your health during global crises like COVID19 or climate change. We know that it’s not about going back to “normal” because normal created the conditions we see today.
We ask you to extend this moratorium through September 30 and protect Houstonians’ access to water throughout the COVID-19 crisis by adopting the recommendations outlined below.
CEER is encouraged that action 20.1 in the Resilient Houston plan is to “Coordinate environmental justice actions with partners. To better align existing and new efforts, the City of Houston and Harris County will form an Environmental Justice Working Group. This group of government stakeholders, advocate stakeholders, academic institutions, and industry partners will coordinate and collaborate with community members on program and policy recommendations to mitigate environmental injustices.
The HOME Coalition and the Coalition for Environment, Equity and Resilience (CEER) appreciate the opportunity to provide comments on the State of Texas Hurricane Harvey Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant funds for Mitigation allocated by Federal Register Notice on August 30, 2019.
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CEER applauds the City of Houston for joining the 100 Resilient Cities program and carrying out a resilience planning process to craft actionable steps we can take as a City. We appreciated the
opportunity to serve on the Achieving Equity & Inclusion working group. the most frequently asked questions, so everybody benefits.
CEER developed in the Greater Houston region shortly after Hurricane Harvey, when community members and leading non-profits recognized that philanthropic entities were being
relied upon to fill gaps in environmental enforcement, monitoring, community education, and coordination. From issues of affordable housing, to transparency in how emergency management dollars are being spent, CEER continues to drive community voices into the post-Hurricane Harvey decision-making process to promote equity and resilience.
The TWDB’s planning must recognize that loans only are a realistic option for a subset of Texas communities. The TWDB must learn more the successes and shortfalls of similar programs and address them in its own. By way of illustration, the federal SBA post-disaster loan program was extremely successful in serving middle-income populations, it left lower-income populations behind. To serve all Texans, the TWDB’s program must design funding mechanisms that anticipate the intertwined obstacles that lower-income communities face: failing infrastructure, multiple flooding events, and, importantly, lack of money on hand to recover quickly.
CEER’s 8 point plan calls for the creation of a CAP. We applaud the City for its efforts. CEER supports the adoption of the Houston Climate Action Plan (CAP) as an important framework for the City of Houston to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Equity and an equitable process was language that was included in the bond, which came after a unanimous decision from this Court. Voters approved it overwhelmingly. So what is next is for us to answer what equity means to Harris County and how we uphold equity in our future decision-making.
To TALK about equity, we have to first acknowledge the inequities that exist.
To PRACTICE equity, we need to hear from the folks closest to the problems.
To IMPLEMENT equity, we need to look at the entire pipeline of implementation.
During pollution events like the fire at the ITC plant in Deer Park, community members have many questions but often find little answers. Data around environmental hazards is often dense and not useful for families to make practical decisions to protect their health. The community’s concerns for data, information and transparency on health impacts and risks must be answered clearly. We call for more enforcement for industry violations of state and federal environmental regulations.
Statement on City of Houston’s Climate Action Plan on the
50th Anniversary of Earth Day:
April 22, 2020
The Mayor’s release of a climate strategy is an important first step for the future of Houston’s people, but it falls short on addressing equity and how Houston will achieve a just transition. Houstonians already on the frontlines of the climate crisis are experiencing disproportionate impacts to health and safety. For them, an equitable implementation of the plan is a matter of life or death. Success should be defined by and with impacted community members, not industry leaders. Polluters, not people, should pay for clean up; vulnerable communities must be prioritized.
The Plan does not go far enough to lay the groundwork for a new Houston economy that protects the safety of workers, reconstructs with clean energy infrastructure and expands opportunities. We envision a Houston that takes on a just transition where we retrain everyone according to fair standards and prioritize action based on need, capacity and natural assets. Now is the time to challenge our economic structures to reflect our shared values of fairness and resilience.
Crises that connect us on a global scale require us to take a collaborative approach that centers community voices and social justice. This pandemic shows us that our government has the resources to invest in our future now. Houston cannot afford to ignore what has been hiding in plain sight. We cannot repeat the national patterns of widening inequity in the wake of climate shocks.
Implementation of strategies to reduce green house gas emissions, increase solar and invest in transit must weave in the legacy of institutional and environmental racism. An equity scorecard should be created by frontline communities and impacted neighborhood leaders should be invited to guide implementation. As City Council votes to adopt actions in the Climate Action Plan, it should engage in a process to analyze existing and proposed policies through a lens of racial equity and climate justice. Every policy and funding decision should lead us to the future we want: a fair and just society where every one of us can thrive. Ensuring a comprehensive strategy turns into reality will require intentionality, holding hard conversations, embracing an orientation of learning and bold leadership.
We need leadership that understand how the history of redlining and racial segregation create the “pre-existing conditions” that harm our communities of color. Houston needs decision makers ready to act on the lessons we’ve learned from Katrina, Ike, Harvey and rewrite the rules to protect our most vulnerable. Today’s plan release is important but what happens next will define Houston for generations to come.