Six Months After Harvey, Recovery Must Focus on Housing, Infrastructure, and Resiliency

Six months after Hurricane Harvey, a long road to recovery lies ahead for the Houston region and where that road leads depends on the intentionality and meticulousness of how immediate decisions are approached. A lot of discussions, following the historic flooding event that damaged approximately 100,000-150,000 housing units in the Houston area, have centered on buying out homes that have flooded repeatedly or that lie in the floodway, in areas adjacent to the major bayous that traverse Houston. The need to take drastic action is clear, however, the limiting factors will be funding, political will, and the ability to maintain a focused long-term strategic approach.

With so many needs having to be met, it’s difficult to predict the amount of funding that will be available from federal coffers for home buyouts, and so it’s incumbent on local leaders to begin exploring alternative options that are within the control of local government. For example, a robust housing program that may for example purchase 20,000 at Houston’s median price of $238,000 would cost $4.5 billion. Furthermore, home buyouts will get you only so far, and what is more important is to begin working on reformations that improve community resiliency.

A few ideas to contemplate that could have significant impact on the trajectory and outcome of the recovery efforts from Harvey include: repurposing of land, improving localized drainage and water detention, and comprehensive community redevelopment. The rebuild efforts must begin with examination of land use in flood prone areas that are contemplated as part of any significant single family home buyout efforts. The voluntary nature of the home buyout program can cause the process to drag on, and can render the effort ineffectual, where it becomes difficult to achieve critical mass.

Once homes have been purchased, a key question to answer is what purpose the vacated land will be put towards and how we improve neighborhood resiliency. A concern some neighborhoods have rightly raised is the destabilizing effect patches of vacant land dispersed throughout communities could have on disrupting the character of the neighborhood. A solution could be to repurpose areas where a sufficient amount of contiguous land has become vacant as greenspace maintained locally, and to have that greenspace serve the dual purpose of serving as localized detention. The dirt that is dug up from building these detention ponds can subsequently be used to shore up the banks of water ways or to fill in some of the low lying properties to raise the land above the 500 year flood plain for new development. If approached in a comprehensive manner and executed properly, any strategic filling of land would be more than offset by the corresponding detention that is created.

This idea conflicts with the city of Houston’s currently proposed revisions to Chapter 19 of its code of ordinances, dealing with development in the floodplain. As currently proposed, the revisions will focus on elevating buildings above a yet-to-be determined base flood elevation and restricting dirt filling sites for any new construction or major reconstruction of buildings in the 500-year FEMA floodplain. The data from Harvey revealed that a lot of the areas that flooded across the region laid outside the FEMA 100-year and 500-year floodplains, meaning revisions are needed to how areas are labeled in order to ensure any regulatory changes will achieve the desired effect.  With that in mind, these proposed revisions at best will take a long time to confer any measurable benefit and at worst would have very little impact on flooding other than for that individual building.

A comprehensive review of the floodplain maps needs to be conducted via a detailed analysis of the best available localized flooding data from the last decade in order to ensure that flood maps accurately reflect the practical experience on ground. This increases the chances of proposed measures achieving the desired impact of reducing flooding damage in the region. Furthermore, immediate impact can be readily achieved by focusing on building up resiliency of existing neighborhoods, by making improvements to the drainage infrastructure and network of bayous to better detain and move water out quickly. The region also needs to focus on getting new housing units built in areas that have suffered little flooding impact from any of the last three major rain storms, and concurrent efforts should be made to fortify resiliency of these areas.

Lastly, Houston must act with the utmost sense of urgency as April marks the beginning of its rainy season. If recent historical trends persist, another major rain event can be expected that will result in significant flooding in some of the currently most vulnerable areas. With so many residents still displaced due to Harvey, one can only imagine how a major flood event would severely further deepen the current state of catastrophe. To avoid the worst possible outcomes, it is in the region’s best interest to work towards quick solutions that improve drainage, enhance resiliency, and rapidly rehouse impacted families, particularly those low-to-moderate income households.


Laolu Davies-Yemitan is a real estate broker and developer who specializes in housing, multifamily development, and urban revitalization. He editorializes on issues related to affordable housing, real estate markets, and public policy. LaoluD.blogspot.com; Twitter: @laoludavies