Rebuild Texas Fund Keeps Giving for Harvey Aid

AUSTIN, TX—The Rebuild Texas Fund has awarded the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation and Enterprise Community Partners a $1.1 million follow-up grant to support the Housing and Economic Assistance to Rebuild Texas/HEART Program. Prior to this grant, HEART had awarded more than $1.4 million to 35 local nonprofits to repair 75 hurricane-damaged homes, and provide case management, along with emergency rent and utility assistance to more than 1,000 families still in need after Harvey.

“By providing much-needed funding both to help homeowners make repairs and to improve the capacity of local organizations to advance long-term recovery, the HEART grants will help thousands of families still reeling from Harvey,” said Michelle Whetten, vice president and Gulf Coast market leader, Enterprise.

HEART, a partnership between the Affordable Housing Corporation and Enterprise, offers grants and technical assistance to local nonprofits that provide home repairs and direct financial assistance to low-income families whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Harvey. The follow-up award will enable HEART grantees to build on the recovery work achieved through the initial grant funding, including the repair of at least 75 additional hurricane-damaged homes and ongoing disaster case management services.

“The collaboration between TSAHC and Enterprise in administering the HEART program to date has proven extraordinarily valuable to needy families in Harvey-impacted regions,” said Neeraj Aggarwal, program director of Rebuild Texas Fund. “But there remains significant ongoing need for home repairs across the impacted regions. We are pleased to provide this follow-on grant to the HEART program to continue this important work.”

Initial funding for HEART included a contribution from the Rebuild Texas Fund, a joint initiative of the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and the OneStar Foundation, as well additional grants from the Meadows Foundation and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

“With the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey’s landfall approaching, we commend Rebuild Texas Fund for their continued commitment to our HEART program and the assistance it provides to households impacted by the devastating disaster,” said David Long, Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation president. “This renewal of funding will help hundreds of Texans get back on their feet.”

Grants funds are awarded through an application process. Applications will be accepted on an invitation-only basis, Monica Gonzalez, senior program director at Enterprise Community Partners, tells GlobeSt.com.

“Applicants must have been awarded funds during the first phase of the HEART program and demonstrated a high level of performance in administration of their grant funding, and/or be specifically recommended for funding by the Rebuild Texas Fund,” Gonzalez explains to GlobeSt.com. “Grantees will utilize 100% of their grant funds to provide housing-related assistance to low-income households directly affected by Hurricane Harvey. Examples include critical home repairs, disaster case management, volunteer coordination, financial counseling, etc.”

When Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas on August 25, 2017 as a Category 4 hurricane, it became the country’s first major Category 3 or higher hurricane since Wilma hit Florida in October 2005 and the first major hurricane to strike southern Texas since Celia in 1970. It kicked off a historically destructive 2017 storm season for the Caribbean and the southern US, according to World Vision.

Causing about $125 billion in damage, Harvey ranks as the second-most costly hurricane to hit the US mainland since 1900. Hurricanes Irma and Maria followed within a month of Harvey, affecting Florida, Puerto Rico and much of the Caribbean, respectively causing $50 billion and $90 billion in damages.