$5.6 billion plan to help with Hurricane Harvey recovery is getting restructured, GLO says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- This month marks almost a decade since Hurricane Harvey made landfall.

But, after all this time, there are still changes coming to the state program tasked with helping people recover.

The Texas General Land Office, or GLO, is looking to reallocate money in its $5.6 billion assistance program.

"They gave us hope, but that was all," Lottie Minor said. "What we had hoped for never came."

Minor said she's still paying off repairs to her home after Hurricane Harvey flooded it.

"Every time I would send them a letter, I would go down and send them another letter, they would reject it," she said. "That was a hurting part, besides all the other trauma I dealt with."

Minor, who is 86 years old, said her home wasn't approved for the repairs she wanted through the state's GLO.

She had insurance, and received some federal money, but she said she still ended up spending almost $15,000 of her own money.

She's not the only one in the neighborhood in the same situation.

"They're suffering. They're suffering in silence and many of them have decided not to pursue any other governmental assistance because of the experience they had," Fred Woods, the President Emeritus of the Northwood Manor Civic Club, said.

Woods has helped elderly residents document storm damage.

"When you suffer from storm after storm without any relief," he said, "it gets very hard to remember what damage happened with what storm."

On Monday, the GLO announced it plants to move around money in its $5.6 billion Harvey fund.

The biggest change is for the city of Houston's single family development program.

The program is losing money, a GLO spokesperson said, because city officials weren't able to meet deadlines for some housing projects.

The spokesperson said, the changes shouldn't impact most people, because the amount of state funding being given out won't change, it'll just be reallocated to other ongoing housing programs.

But, for those like Minor, the changes, nearly a decade after the storm, symbolize just how long and painful recovery has been.

"Every time I would send them a letter, I would go down and send them another letter, they would reject it," she said. "That was a hurting part, besides all the other trauma I dealt with."