ALAMO — Nearly a dozen people gathered outside the green home on Harrison Avenue awaiting the chance to get a look at the newly completed house.
“How excited are you?” Brittany Eck, director of communications, community disaster recovery for the Texas General Land Office, asked.
“Extremely,” Maria Amador said. “I’m just worried that I’m going to have a heart attack.”
The small crowd gathered at the residence for the Texas GLO’s Homeowner Assistance and Reimbursement Programs key release event. Amador was getting her first look at her new home after it was rebuilt following significant damage due to severe flooding in 2018 and 2019.
“Welcome home,” Eck told Amador as she handed her the keys to her new home.
“If I faint, I’ll need somebody to pick me up,” Amador said as the group made their way inside the small two-bedroom, two-bathroom home.
Thursday’s event was the end result of the GLO’s Homeowner Assistance and Reimbursement Programs, which is set to expire on Aug. 31.
Amador had lived in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom mobile home on the property for 30 years. The home sustained severe damage during the 2018 and 2019 storms.
“It pretty much had already served its purpose,” Amador said. “Mobile homes, once they get water in them, it’s hard to fix.”
Todd Cuell, program manager for DSW, said that construction of Amador’s new home took 60 days.
DSW specializes in residential rehabilitation, reconstruction, replacement, and demolition through Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR).
“It’s just a great program,” Cuell said about the Homeowner Assistance and Reimbursement Programs. “We just need more applicants. They’ve got more money. Get the word out that the program is true. It is what it is.”
Eck explained that there are two programs available to local homeowners affected by the 2018 and 2019 storms.
“These are two programs in one,” Eck explained. “One is helping with rebuilding and repairing damaged homes. The other is reimbursement for eligible expenditures up to $58,000 if the applicant did it themselves. You can apply with the same application for both programs.”
“Basically, if your home was damaged in the 2018 or 2019 floods, and we can prove that there’s a tie back to those storms and it was damaged in those storms, we can use these (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) CDBG-DR funds to either repair, rebuild, or reimburse you for repairs you did yourself,” she continued.
The GLO allocated $137.8 million for the Homeowner Assistance and Reimbursement Programs in South Texas and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Potentially eligible homeowners are encouraged to apply ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline.
“We do anticipate running out of funds,” Eck said. “The applications are considered on a first come, first serve basis. If they have any issues with documentation needed for federal eligibility, we’re happy to help them. We just need to know.”
Amador said that the application process requires some patience, but as she stood in the living room of her new home, she added that the end result was well worth the wait.
“I am extremely happy. I’m overwhelmed with joy,” Amador said. “This is something that I’d have never had without this program.”
For more information about the programs, visit recovery.texas.gov/harp.
