Lone Star Legal Aid Issues Public Comment on FEMA Notice

WASHINGTON, July 28 -- Lone Star Legal Aid, Houston, Texas, has issued a public comment on the Federal Emergency Management Agency notice entitled "Request for Information on FEMA Programs, Regulations, and Policies". The comment was written on July 20, 2021, and posted on July 21, 2021:

The comment was co-signed by Amy Dinn, managing attorney, Caroline Crow, staff attorney, and Chase Porter, equal justice works fellow, in the Environmental Justice Team; Ashea Jones Brown, staff attorney in the Community Advocacy Team; and Amanda Bosley, managing attorney and staff attorney, and Shrushti Kothari, staff attorney, in the Disaster Relief Unit.

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I. INTRODUCTION

On behalf of the respective clients identified below and each group's represented community, Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) submits these comments in response to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Request for Information (RFI) to receive input from the public on specific FEMA programs, regulations, collections of information, and policies for the agency to consider modifying, streamlining, expanding, or repealing in light of recent Executive Orders. We hope that FEMA will consider and respond to these comments in any revisions of current policy and regulations aimed at better serving fenceline and environmental justice communities who are the victims of disasters.

LSLA's mission is to protect and advance the civil legal rights of millions of Texans living in poverty across LSLA's service area by providing these individuals, their families, and their communities free advocacy, legal representation, and community education to further equal access to justice, including supporting their right to participate in our nation's democratic processes--such as this RFI. LSLA advocates on behalf of its clients to ensure their voices are heard, respected, and reflected when opportunities to submit their feedback arise.

LSLA's service area includes seven coastal counties on the upper Gulf Coast of Texas: Orange, Jefferson, Chambers, Harris, Galveston, Brazoria, and Matagorda Counties. LSLA's Environmental Justice Team and LSLA's Community Advocacy Team focus on the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens and the right to equal protection from environmental hazards for the many low-income individuals and communities in these counties.

The following sections describe LSLA's clients (Commenters) who have worked closely with LSLA to produce these comments. The Community Profiles detailed in Part II of these comments describe LSLA clients' collective experiences and informs the answers to FEMA's specific and general RFI's below-listed and responded to in Part III. The Community Profiles explain the impacts of disasters on specific Texas Gulf Coast neighborhoods, and why it's so important for FEMA to consider the recommendations outlined in Part III.

II. REPRESENTED COMMUNITIES ON THE TEXAS GULF COAST

A. COMMUNITY PROFILE: INDEPENDENCE HEIGHTS REDEVELOPMENT COUNCIL, HOUSTON, TEXAS

1. Overview of Independence Heights Redevelopment Council

Independence Heights Redevelopment Council (IHRC) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen the community through historic preservation and revitalization activities. IHRC empowers the stakeholders of the community to be the primary change agents for economic, social and physical improvements. IHRC provides four core programs including Historic Preservation, Marketing and Outreach, Leadership and Civic Engagement, and Community Based Programs. Its activities include working in various areas of community development such as housing, transportation, infrastructure, safety and preparedness, health and wellness, recreation and arts.

2. Demographics of Independence Heights

IHRC represents the neighborhood of Independence Heights, which is an environmental justice community as shown below in Figure 1 with Demographic Index results from EJ Screen, an environmental justice mapping and screening tool developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and demographic indicators.

Figure 1: Environmental Justice Profile based on Demographic Index from EJ Screen of Independence Heights.

Link to figure below.

The Demographic Index in EJSCREEN is a combination of percent low-income and percent minority, the two demographic factors that were explicitly named in Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice. For each Census block group, these two numbers are simply averaged together. The formula is as follows: Demographic Index = (% minority + % low-income)/2./1

All of the properties in Independence Heights are in 95-100% percentile nationally of the Demographic Index.

Figure 2: Footprint of Independence Heights in the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas/2

Link to figure below.

Independence Heights is a historic Texas community as it was the first town incorporated by African Americans in the State of Texas. Originally northeast of Houston in an area now within the Houston city limits, the community was built on a foundation of faith and a historic past. The early Independence Heights pioneers sought equal rights and opportunities for themselves and were focused on self-governance.

The boundaries of the original town of Independence Heights are 30th Street/3 on the South (present-day I-610), Yale on the west, Crosstimbers on the north, and the Little White Oak Bayou on the east. In its online Handbook of Texas, the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) published the map reflected in Figure 2 as revealing the modern-day boundaries of the community of Independence Heights./4

Based on the 2010 U.S. Census, 60 percent of the population within the boundaries of the historic Independence Heights was African American, and the population was 96% minority. Owner-occupied properties comprised 49% of the housing stock. Within the footprint of the original town, there are now three schools, one community center, and one fire station. Only two public parks exist in this defined geographic area. No police substations exist in the entire Super Neighborhood of Independence Heights situated in Council District H in the City of Houston. Despite being annexed by the City of Houston in 1929, the community did not receive sidewalks until the 1980s, and there are still large pockets of this historic community that unfortunately remain sidewalk-free due to the City's historic lack of investment in this region.

Possibly buoyed by Booker T. Washington's historic visit to Houston's Freedman's Town in 1911, the residents of Independence Heights may have taken his message of self-determination for African Americans to heart. As showcased in the play, Booker T's Towns,/5 Washington encouraged African Americans not to wait for equality, but to go and settle their towns throughout the south. By 1915, Washington's mentorship contributed to the founding of Tuskegee Institute, AL; Hobson City, AL; Eatonville, FL; Mound Bayou, MS, and Grambling, LA. During this trip to Houston, Washington gave a speech at the Covington Hotel in the Fourth Ward which likely influenced many African Americans in the Houston area at the time. Four years later, the residents of Independence Heights incorporated the first African American town in Texas.

As a result of its first citizens' tenacity and resilience, Independence Heights was incorporated on January 25, 1915. G.O. Burgess served as its first mayor as announced in the Houston Post on January 17, 1915 that it was the "first incorporated black city in Texas"./6

This achievement and the subsequent growth of this community deserves recognition because people of African descent were able to purchase and own land in segregated Houston. This community of 600 people lived in scattered sites across a geographic area known as Independence Heights.

The establishment of Independence Heights began around 1905, after the Wright Land Company secured the land for the area and sold lots to African Americans. In 1908, the first deeds were recorded and by 1915 it was home to some 600 people seeking a better life. The self-financing by the Wright Land Company kept the land affordable for these new African American homeowners. Resident contractors built most of the houses and churches, and because of this African American community created its own city of Independence Heights and a community that reflects and cherishes its values, accomplishments, and history to this day.

B. INDEPENDENCE HEIGHTS' EXPERIENCE WITH DISASTERS

From the original failure by the City of Houston, after annexation, to equip the community with sidewalks and adequate drainage, there is a pattern of denying residents of Independence Heights the basic infrastructure they do need. The historical pattern of neglect of infrastructure by the City of Houston in predominately African American neighborhoods outside the loop only compounds this problem. Houston's legacy of "infrastructural citizenship" and unequal disbursement of infrastructural benefits and consequences remains visible today./7

These conditions have left the Independence Heights community historically under-resourced and un-invested in for years. Very little effort has been made to protect these communities from threats of flood or address general neighborhood safety concerns like streetlights, sidewalks and a police presence.

The racial wealth gap in this country is exemplified by communities like Independence Heights. While black households have an average of $17,600 in family wealth, white households have an average of $171,000 (according to 2016 census data). Because home ownership is the primary means through which Americans accumulate wealth, takings of that property for infrastructure projects displace residents and make it harder for them to retain property. Moreover, sometimes these acquisitions can have cumulative impacts on the remaining residents who live adjacent to a newly constructed freeway, which also diminishes property values (although usually not to the extent that it is a "constructive use of the land" and compensable). For example, when the predecessor of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) built the I-610 & I-45 interchange in 1962, it channeled the Little White Oak Bayou through an undersized culvert under the freeway. It is much too small, and with each heavy rain, the water pools in Independence Heights, damaging and further devaluing residents' primary form of wealth, their homes.

The Independence Heights area saw mass disinvestment from the 1970s through the 1990s, while the Houston suburbs grew at breakneck speed, sealing off most of the ground with concrete in the process. Combine that with steadily worsening weather disasters and it is little surprise the neighborhood has flooded three times since 2016. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 30 inches of rain on Houston, which caused the bayou in Independence Heights to flood. To make matters worse, the highway acted as a de facto dam, trapping floodwater in the neighborhood. Hurricane Harvey damaged approximately 65 percent of Independence Heights homes as detailed in Figures 3 and 4.

Figures 3 and 4: Distribution of Properties Impacted by Hurricane Harvey in Independence Heights/8

Link to figure below.

Tropical Storm Imelda, the 5th wettest tropical cyclone in the continental U.S. according to the Weather Channel,/9 brought similar flooding to the Independence Heights community, resulting in high water rescue trucks needed to pick up children at school and take them home. The resulting flooding from Imelda's 41" of rain in some areas stopped traffic in Houston and Independence Heights. As shown in Figures 5, 6, and 7 on the next page, flood damages in the community have steadily grown every year./10

Imelda damaged homes not yet repaired after Hurricane Harvey just two years earlier.

For low-income Black and Latino communities, even a medium-sized storm can spell disaster on top of the ongoing burden of structural racial inequality. A study by Rice University and the University of Pittsburgh found that between 1999 and 2013, natural disasters increased Houston's racial wealth gap by $87,000. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, after Hurricane Harvey, white residents of higher-income Houston neighborhoods received an average of $60,000 in FEMA assistance, while Black residents in low-income neighborhoods received just $84.

Even after 8 federally declared major disasters in Houston since 2015, Independence Heights residents do not have flood insurance after Hurricane Harvey because they cannot afford it. Instead of FEMA coming to the rescue, local nonprofits and churches have helped the community rebuild. The community leans on its local churches because, even if money is available through FEMA, it can take too long for it to show up to be of assistance.

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In addition to developing progressive premium structures and utilizing mitigation strategies, FEMA should also expand the GFIP. Currently, the GFIP covers three years of flood insurance for those in SFHAs who do not have an existing flood insurance requirement. GFIP should be extended beyond three years. GFIP would counts against a recipients ONA limit and thus would lower the amount of other ONA a recipient could receive. Therefore, FEMA should consider exempting the GFIP from assistance limits.

FEMA should increase public awareness of flood insurance requirements through outreach and community education efforts. The represented groups have performed public outreach of this kind on their own and have found that many community members do not fully understand flood insurance requirements and its interplay with other types of disaster assistance. Outreach should take place across multiple media, including television and radio public service announcements; advertising in newspapers and billboards; and physical outreach into at-risk communities such as those represented in these comments.

Relatedly, FEMA should make every effort to update and publish accurate flood maps. Countless studies and publications have noted how "outdated and inaccurate" FEMA's flood maps are. Many vulnerable residents do not accurately understand the risks of where they live. Accurate information will encourage better and smarter development, lowering flood burdens on residents, businesses, and government alike. Accurate information will also better allow individuals and their families to make more informed choices regarding how or whether they repair a property after a flood event.

View full comment and figures at: https://downloads.regulations.gov/FEMA-2021-0011-0245/attachment_1.pdf

Respectfully submitted,

LONE STAR LEGAL AID

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TEAM

Amy Dinn ([email protected]), Managing Attorney

Caroline Crow ([email protected]), Staff Attorney

Chase Porter ([email protected]), Equal Justice Works Fellow

COMMUNITY ADVOCACY TEAM

Ashea Jones Brown ([email protected]), Staff Attorney

DISASTER RELIEF UNIT

Amanda Bosley ([email protected]), Managing Attorney, Staff Attorney

Shrushti Kothari ([email protected]), Staff Attorney

P.O. Box 398

Houston, Texas 77001-0398

Telephone: 713-652-0077

Facsimile: 713-652-3141

ATTORNEYS FOR SUPER NEIGHBORHOOD 49&50, INDEPENDENCE HEIGHTS REDEVELOPMENT COUNCIL, SUPER NEIGHRBORHOOD 48, AND PORT ARTHUR COMMNUNITY ACTION NETWORK

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Footnotes:

1/ Calculated from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2011-2015.

2/ Handbook of Texas Online, Vivian Hubbard Seals, "INDEPENDENCE HEIGHTS, TX," accessed May 23, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hri07.

3/ 30th Street no longer exists because it was taken to build the NW section of the I-610 loop in 1959.

4/ Handbook of Texas Online, Vivian Hubbard Seals, "INDEPENDENCE HEIGHTS, TX.

5/ See description of Booker T's Towns, performed in 2018, https://tockify.com/al200/detail/283/1520434800000

6/ Handbook of Texas Online, Vivian Hubbard Seals, "INDEPENDENCE HEIGHTS, TX," accessed May 23, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hri07.

7/ Id.

8/ 8 Flood Factor data for Independence Heights, Texas, available at https://floodfactor.com/neighborhood/independence-heights-texas/9600_fsid

9/ Stacy Fernandez and Davis Rich, Texans still don't know if they qualify for FEMA aid after Imelda. But some say the potential help may not be worth the wait., TEX. TRIBUNE (September 27, 2019), available at https://www.texastribune.org/2019/09/27/will-texans-qualify-FEMA-aid-after-tropical-storm-imelda/?utm_source=articleshare&utm_medium=social 10 Flood Factor data for Independence Heights, Texas, available at https://floodfactor.com/neighborhood/independence-heights-texas/9600_fsid

10/ Flood Factor data for Independence Heights, Texas, available at https://floodfactor.com/neighborhood/independence-heights-texas/9600_fsid

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The notice can be viewed at: https://www.regulations.gov/document/FEMA-2021-0011-0001

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