By Britt Lake | Chief Program Officer
Tommy put aside his paperwork to help set up a mass shelter.
Sara convinced landlords across the city to open their apartments to people who had nowhere to go.
Renee partnered with a furniture company to ensure survivors had beds to sleep in and cabinets stocked with food.
When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, it meant double-duty for people like Tommy, a grants manager at BakerRipley, and Sara, a communications manager at the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County.
Thanks to you, these local heroes in Houston had the resources they needed to respond to the most pressing needs their communities in the wake of Harvey. With your support, our partners are restoring hurricane-ravaged homes, feeding displaced families, and caring for the most vulnerable survivors of the storm.
You can learn more about the heroic people you empowered in our new series, “After the Storm.”
With your support, our 29 Hurricane Harvey relief partners are now focused on meeting long-term disaster recovery needs in the hardest-hit Houston communities. That means ensuring vulnerable storm survivors, including immigrants, the elderly, children (and abandoned pets), have food and shelter.
While life looks like it’s back to normal in most parts of Houston, with electricity humming and doors open for business, the situation is still dire for thousands of people who our partners serve.
Two months after Harvey, our partners told us many people are still living in hotels, or even worse, their cars. Some are lucky enough to have families to lean on and stay with, but our partners said cramped living quarters and high-stress situations have strained relationships for some Harvey survivors. In some cases, people were living paycheck to paycheck or rooming with a friend in a now-damaged property. They’re struggling to find stability again with storm-related expenses that aren’t covered by insurance. Some survived domestic violence but were undocumented, and now need extra help to get back on their feet.
“Documents showing identity and evidence of abuse—needed for their legal cases—were lost with the rest of their belongings in the floods,” the Tahirih Justice Center reports.
Full recovery from Hurricane Harvey by all accounts will take years, and there are many challenges to still overcome. With you by our side, the GlobalGiving community will continue to be a strong source of support for Houston heroes—throughout the holiday season and for the long haul.
Warmly,
Britt Lake + the GlobalGiving Team
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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When a disaster strikes, recovery efforts led by people who live and work in affected communities are often overlooked and underfunded. GlobalGiving is changing this reality. Since 2004, we've been shifting decision-making power to crises-affected communities through trust-based grantmaking and support.
We make it easy, quick, and safe to support people on the ground who understand needs in their communities better than anyone else.
They were there long before the news cameras arrived, and they’ll be there long after the cameras leave. They know how to make their communities more resilient to future disasters, and they’re already hard at work. GlobalGiving puts donations and grants directly into their hands. Because the status quo—which gives the vast majority of funding to a few large organizations—doesn’t make sense.
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