Hurricane Harvey left 77 dead, caused $200bn in damage and left thousands homeless, and the rebuilding will be the largest effort since New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. And the clear-up is proving equally dangerous.



A new report produced by the University of Illinois Chicago in conjunction with workers’ rights groups paints a startling picture of the inequity experienced by many of the immigrants doing the hard, often dangerous work of rebuilding. Many have experienced wage theft, the majority have had no safety training and workers are rebuilding without access to basic safety equipment.

Already, battle lines are being drawn between a vision of equitable reconstruction being driven by worker’s rights groups and their allies in the Houston government and a free market vision championed by the Trump administration and their Republican allies in the Texas state government.

More than a decade after Katrina, immigrant and workers groups say that they have learned the lessons of storm recovery and are applying them to a massive political movement being launched under the banner of Houston Rising Coalition.

“Black workers were primarily excluded from rebuilding efforts and had to fight their way in while immigrants workers, while included, suffered extraordinary exploitation” said Saket Soni, executive director of the National Guestworkers Alliance, who headed the New Orleans Workers’ Center after Katrina.

“I think the lesson here is that the rules of the recovery need to be set up early to be allowed for a just reconstruction,” said Soni. “To achieve a successful rebuilding and reconstruction and to particularly to achieve a just reconstruction, we really have to be in for the long haul.”

Last weekend, immigrant groups, labor unions, civil rights and environmental groups assembled for the first meeting of the Houston Rising Coalition with their allies in the local Houston government. The group aims not to just to prevent residents from being displaced, but also to address long-simmering issues of affordable housing, environmental justice, and wage inequity.

“In every respect, this is an opportunity to do things better than they were before. Period,” Houston recovery czar Marvin Odum, the former CEO of Shell Oil, who has been appointed by the Houston mayor Sylvester Turner, told the crowd.

However, the efforts to rebuild Houston could be hampered by the actions of the Trump administration, which has faced criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike in the state.

In every respect, this is an opportunity to do things better than they were before. Period Marvin Odum

In early November, the administration requested that Congress grant $44bn in federal aid to the state, less than half of what was spent rebuilding New Orleans a decade earlier, and a level of funding condemned by all sides.

Outside of their agreement on the inadequacy of federal dollars being earmarked for reconstruction, conservatives and workers’ rights champion agree on very little else.

Worker groups in Houston want the federal aid to be distributed through the Houston’s mayor office, where they feel like they have a solid progressive ally in Democratic mayor Turner.

However, Abbott wants the federal money to be distributed through the Texas general land office run by George P Bush, former presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s son. Advocates fear that if the Republican controlled state government distributes the money, little will flow to immigrant and workers groups in the area.

Immigrant groups say that given the culture of fear that exists among immigrants in seeking government help that it’s essential that these groups are given funding to make sure that these communities aren’t exploited in the recovery.

The flooding in Houston, Texas, after Harvey. Photograph: David J. Phillip/AP

The recent survey of 361 Latino day laborers conducted by University of Illinois at Chicago, done in conjunction with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and Fe y Justicia Worker Center and funded by the Ford Foundation, paints a startling picture of the inequities plaguing Houston’s clean up.

According to the report, entitled “After the Storm: Houston’s Day Labor Markets in the Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey”, 26% of those surveyed said that they have experienced wage theft in doing hurricane recovery work. Some 64% of day laborers say that they have not sought government assistance in storm recovery out of fear of being deported. More shockingly, 85% of day laborers say that they have not received any health and safety training prior to entering a job site. And 61% of day laborer say they have no respiratory equipment to prevent themselves from breathing in dangerous molds and chemicals.

Last month, the Guardian reported that workplace safety groups have criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) for failing to coordinate their health and safety training as the Obama administration did.

Unsafe conditions have already taken the life of one worker, 31-year-old Josue Zurita, an immigrant from Mexico. Zurita, a carpenter, had worked on several flood-damaged homes that had become infected with the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing fasciitis.

While members of the Houston Rising Coalition remain skeptical about how recovery aid will be distributed, they say that they are preparing to take action into their own hands. Groups have organized the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund Community Relief Fund so that private money can follow directions to the group.

The money from Hurricane Harvey Relief Community Relief Fund has helped groups like Houston Rising and Worker’s Defense Project hire on additional organizers for not just philanthropy but also to hire more community organizers to mobilize workers to fight for an equitable reconstruction.

“There are real people on the ground right now who are still suffering through this recovery, who have mold in their homes, who have been injured in recovery effort, but in the face of the challenges to working people, there is a real movement of people who are coming together to demand a recovery that is equitable” says Jose Garza, executive director of Texas Workers Defense Project.

“It is like many movements we see rise in the age of Trump,” says Gazra. “It is people who see that the federal government under Trump is failing them and they have a responsibility to stand up with their neighbors and fellow members of their community to make change in their own backyard”.