Approximately 200 households in Houston affected by Hurricane Harvey, which caused extensive flooding in the area in 2017, may get up to $125,000 in aid for principal buydown, closing expenses, down payments, and reduced interest rates.
At its weekly meeting Wednesday, the Houston City Council overwhelmingly adopted the program’s guidelines.
Low-to-moderate-income households earning no more than 120% of the local median income are the focus of the $18 million program.
The director of the Housing and Community Development Department, Mike Nichols, stated, “We’re going to be in the forefront of this nationally to bring more affordability to Houston.” “This is a small step it will impact a little over 200 families, will put them in housing but it s a big step not only for those families, but also for the direction that we want to move.”
The relationship between the City of Houston and the Texas General Land Office, which authorizes the distribution of the funds, has always been chilly. After Harvey, the state’s land agency initially gave Houston and Harris County no federal assistance funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Additionally, the GLO took over the City of Houston’s Harvey Homeowner Assistance Program after the city only provided assistance to 156 households in the three years following the catastrophe.
John Whitmire, the mayor of Houston, who was elected to City Hall in 2023 after serving as a state representative for 50 years, claimed to have started a “renewed collaboration, probably historic” between the city and the GLO. He promised in January to collaborate with Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham to distribute nearly $200 million in federal funds that had not been used more than six years after Hurricane Harvey.
“We re very fortunate, mayor, because of the work that you do that has really changed the relationship with the General Land Office,” Nichols stated. “Yesterday we had our quarterly review in our offices with GLO, and it was an extremely both friendly and supportive review.”
Candidates must have lived in the City of Houston on August 25, 2017, in order to qualify for the aid. In addition to meeting state and federal regulations, applicants must already have a mortgage in place.
Questions about additional eligibility conditions and how residents can apply were not immediately answered by the city’s Housing and Community Development Department.
Approximately 50 households are currently waiting for the latest funding round, and a similar program has previously helped about 500 homebuyers.
“Affordability is a big issue across the country, not just for Houston, but for cities across the country,” stated Martha Castex-Tatum from the Houston City Council. “It s programs like this although you say it s only for 200 people, for those 200 people we have changed their lives.”
