Racist Past, Systemic Barriers Wreck Poststorm Lives: Let’s Keep on Pushing

KAITLIN BAIN

Iwant to tell you a story about a woman that I met while reporting in 2018. The Texas General Land Office was at her house to announce the Homeowner Assistance Program. The program was set to rebuild or fix and elevate homes of qualifying individuals whose homes had been destroyed after Harvey.

She walked Land Commissioner George P. Bush, all of his people, through her house—or what was left of it. She’d already been told by more than one contractor that her house could not be elevated; it was already sinking into the ground. But it was her grandparents’ home. She remembers summers spent there with her cousins and she knows that the village surrounding the home is the one that will help watch her grandchildren when they come back to visit.

Not only that, but all her personal history is also steeped in that land, along with the racial past that we’ve talked about in these sessions and the systemic barriers we know exist between traditionally underrepresented populations and homeownership. All those reasons are why she stayed, on top of—it’s just home. But initially she was denied. She misused FEMA funds after Harvey. She rented an apartment with the money, exactly what they’re supposed to be used for, but she also replaced some clothes and home goods after Harvey took everything.

The GLO ultimately worked with her and got her set up for a new home, smaller than originally would have been approved because of that “misuse” of FEMA funds, but it’s a home hopefully elevated from future floodwaters. But at the end of the day . . . there were dozens of other people in the exact same situation, facing these FEMA regulations, who were denied.

Recovery programs require the applicant to demonstrate how the damage is directly tied to whatever the program was given the money for. Southeast Texas has been under a disaster declaration at this point for years: COVID-19, Hurricane Laura, the TPC explosion, Imelda, Harvey, and I know that I did not list them all. Not all of these are extreme weather events, but they all underscore and/or exacerbate existing inequalities. When you lose everything, work clothes—or even regular clothes—become a necessary expense in the days, weeks and months that follow. But they don’t necessarily qualify under ‘FEMA-approved’ expenses.

Then there are required documents for something like the Homeowner Assistance Program. I spoke to several people who didn’t even apply, didn’t even chance it at all, despite their homes’ being totally unlivable, because they didn’t have the money, the time, or the know-how to probate the will that left them the structure in the first place. They also knew that they wouldn’t have the money to ulti me, nearly impossible if we want to get more than, I don’t know, one project done every five years. So, we have to find other ways to keep from breaking the natural drainage system process in the first place.

Jefferson County is home to the largest coastal restoration project in the United States. The work restores not only wildlife habitat but also resurrects the beach and marsh and sand dune that previously provided some storm surge protection. The Flood Infrastructure Fund, thought up in part by now-Texas Speaker Dade Phelan, demands regions work largely with river basins, as opposed to political boundaries, to create flood control projects that will be financed by the Flood Infrastructure Fund. This is to protect the Texas coast from storms, and breaks records as the largest civil engineering project in the country. And finally, much disaster recovery money is now being allocated in such a way as to mitigate future damage, as opposed to simply putting things back the way they were before. But we have to keep pushing for better.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Scalawag’s Race & Place editor, someone I really look up to, Ko Bragg, that I think puts the word “resilience” in perspective. She says,

It’s different when a community is calling themselves resilient, because what I’m hearing in that is we are resilient to forces, whether it’s the climate or the people who are supposed to be supporting us. It’s different when you have outsiders, who are like, Y’all are so resilient! It’s like you are expecting us to continue to endure this, continue to bounce back into shape and be happy with whatever little handouts we get, whether it be a president throwing paper towels or some little blue tarps on the roof. Either way it’s not enough. And it’s not okay for you to continue to feel good about yourself because certain communities continue to get the short end of the stick and make grits out of it.

Kaitlin Bain is the editor of the “Beaumont Enterprise.”

It’s different when a community is calling themselves resilient, because what I’m hearing in that is we are resilient to forces, whether it’s the climate or the people who are supposed to be supporting us. It’s different when you have outsiders, who are like, Y’all are so resilient! It’s like you are expecting us to continue to endure this, continue to bounce back into shape and be happy with whatever little handouts we get, whether it be a president throwing paper towels or some little blue tarps on the roof. Either way it’s not enough. And it’s not okay for you to continue to feel good about yourself because certain communities continue to get the short end of the stick and make grits out of it.

— Mississippi writer/editor Ko Bragg