Video: What Texas must learn about disaster recovery and fair housing [Video]

It’s been 10 years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast, and in subsequent years other major hurricanes have devastated Texas’ coastal communities. Our partners at Texas Appleseed, looking back over the past decade, have identified how Texas’ natural disasters exacerbate systemic inequalities, both in how low income communities of color are left vulnerable to extreme weather and in the ways that recovery and rebuilding efforts prioritize some communities over others.

As Madison Sloan and Deborah Fowler write in Appleseed’s recently released white paper:

“One of the legacies of segregation is that historically underserved populations—the poor, people of color, persons with disabilities—often live in areas most vulnerable to flooding and other impacts of natural disasters. The same communities are often overlooked during the recovery process, despite having borne the brunt of the damage.”

The lesson of the past 10 years is that recovery efforts must emphasize fair housing in order to be fair and equitable. …