City's underserved population foresees uneven recovery Habitat for Humanity neighborhood faces uphill battle after flood deluge

Driss Lassile walks through his house - heavily damaged by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey - after volunteers from Habitat for Humanity helped clean out his flood-damaged home on Saturday in Independence Heights.﻿ less Driss Lassile walks through his house - heavily damaged by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey - after volunteers from Habitat for Humanity helped clean out his flood-damaged home on Saturday in Independence ... more Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close City's underserved population foresees uneven recovery 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Houston's history of pioneering and plenty has always contrasted with its stubborn pockets of poverty.

When Tropical Storm Harvey hit and sent water everywhere, being in the same boat went beyond metaphor.

But looking ahead, those who live the inequities or work to even them up foresee an uneven recovery for the working class or folks barely clinging to a middle rung of the economic ladder.

Harvey floodwaters deluged Harrel Park, Houston Habitat for Humanity's newest subdivision, and soaked all 111 homes, officials said.

Water was knee-high in the house, then waist-high in the streets when Neketta Shafer and her relatives fled the home they moved into on Sept. 15, 2016.

"We were just blessed to get out of there alive," the 40-year-old said Saturday of her three-bedroom, two-bathroom house.

Shafer and her husband stayed in their truck for two days until a boat rescued them.

In less than a year, they experienced the jubilation of home ownership and the anguish of a destroyed investment.

Habitat homeowners obtain zero-percent mortgages and contribute hours of sweat equity to build their houses.

Owning a home has the veneer of achieving the American dream, but Habitat homeowners often live on shoestring budgets and even thinner fallback resources. Most have few safety-net benefits such as paid sick leave tucked away to provide income during a long-term illness or tragedy.

Word spread quickly on the night of Aug. 26 that water was rising in Harrel Park, which is immediately north of the Settegast community and east of North Wayside Drive on the city's northeast side. Some people had moved in over the last few months.

"Habitat homeowners are low-income persons and first-time homeowners," Houston Habitat general counsel and board member Toni Jackson said. "Our concern is that many of these people gave all they had to get in these homes and have only been in these homes for a short time. Their recovery is going to be more difficult. They have few resources to rely on."

There's growing focus and concern on underserved communities post-Harvey.

Tanya Debose, the honorary mayor of Independence Heights, organized a tour of her northside community on Saturday afternoon.

Missed communities

Settled in 1908 as the first black municipality in Texas, Independence Heights is now part of Houston and stretches from the northeast corner of Yale and Loop 610, north of the Heights, to Interstate 45 and up to Tidwell.

Debose, who is also executive director of the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council, said there were lessons learned about how resources can miss certain populations after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008. That's why she called upon elected officials to personally survey the damage.

State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, Houston ISD trustee Rhonda Skillern-Jones and Judge Eric William Carter, a Harris County justice of the peace who represents Precinct 1, Place 1, visited homes on East 40½ Street. A representative from U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's office served double duty as an English-Spanish translator.

Volunteers and officials delivered new brooms and mops as they encouraged residents to begin hauling wet furnishings outside.

Skillern-Jones offered information about HISD campuses opening on Sept. 11 and handed out gift cards to help students she encountered replace school clothes and supplies.

Jonathan Ogugua, 17, attends Heights High School. He looked shocked when the trustee gave him a gift card but reflexively thanked her.

The Independence Heights Greater Houston Baptist Ministers Alliance, a collaborative of about two dozen churches, organized stops at worship centers to provide residents access to food, clothes, baby essentials and cleaning supplies. Many have limited resources and cannot leave the community because their cars were flooded. The area also has a high percentage of seniors.

"Historically, this neighborhood was not in the flood plain, and many don't have flood insurance and were not prepared to flood. So, they're just in their houses with everything wet, damaged and they don't know what to do," said Ray Mackey, an area minister and the alliance's community chair. "They can walk, and we can also run our church vans up and down streets."

Kenneth Mitchell got water up to his ankles in the Independence Heights home he rents in three intervals as the water rose and receded. His SUV also took on water but still runs - just rougher.

"I'm going to have to pull the stuff out and file a FEMA case," the 57-year-old said. "I would hope we get the assistance that we need. We're taxpaying citizens like everybody else."

Religious support

In their weekly Saturday broadcasts, national civil rights leaders discussed targeted efforts to underserved communities in Houston and collaborative efforts with local churches and pastors.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Chicago-based Rainbow Push Coalition was collecting items this weekend in a truck destined for Houston and mentioned working with Houston clergy including the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church and the Rev. Marcus D. Cosby of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church.

The Rev. Al Sharpton of the New York City-based National Action Network said he was supporting "relief and recovery" efforts arranged by the Rev. Ralph West of the Church Without Walls, which has three campuses in Houston.

Sharpton encouraged donations to faith communities on the ground in hard-hit neighborhoods that were underserved before the hurricane, particularly areas with majority black and Latino populations, because "a lot of the money doesn't get to the people who need it."

He warned about developers receiving grants, then "gentrifying" and "profiting off of the misery and pain of people if we are not careful."

'Wasn't easy'

On Saturday afternoon in Harrel Park, the streets were bone dry. A week ago, houses had 2 to 4 feet of water. The squealing motored claw of a contractor's truck could be heard collecting water-logged debris in the older parts of the neighborhood.

Traffic squeezed by water-immobilized cars parked on both sides of the streets. Soaked furniture filled the curbs in the first phase of Harrel Park while crumbling drywall sat outside homes in the newest part.

Habitat's international and state operations sent volunteers from across the country to help homeowners "muck and gut" houses on Saturday. A restoration company quoted Shafer $3,300 to get that work done.

"The volunteers cleaned everything out of the house," she said. "The Habitat people saved us $3,300."

For now, her family has found refuge with her sister in Channelview.

She and her husband, who works in home health care, are headed back to their jobs - normalcy and income - to rebuild their American dream.

"It wasn't easy getting it, but we're blessed," Shafer said. "It can't get nothing but better for us now."

Photojournalist Brett Coomer contributed to this report.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated 136 homes flooded in Harrel Park. It was actually 111.