'People just give up': Low-income hurricane victims slam federal relief programs

[malaise]

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/29/houston-hurricane-harvey-fema-597912
<snip>
HOUSTON — Nine months after Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on the Gulf Coast, green grass has returned to plush Houston developments and the city’s downtown hums with millennial workers choosing a favorite food truck. But just a short drive away, Kashmere Gardens has not recovered.

Nearly every street of the 10,000-person neighborhood has homes that are gutted. Empty window panes reveal sparse interiors without walls, doors or carpets. Doors hang ajar and mold consumes living rooms and kitchens. Signs dot the lawns, promising homeowners that they can quickly sell out and avoid the messy process of rebuilding. One family lives in a tent in their driveway where mangy dogs circle around, shedding fur and leaving a rotten stench hanging in the air. Inside their wrecked home, two 4-year-old children sleep just feet away from open electric wires.

The challenges in Kashmere Gardens — where two-thirds of the residents are black and the median income is $23,000 per year — are not the result of any one policy or agency. They’re the consequence of a complicated, bureaucratic disaster-response system built up over decades that experts nearly universally agree is failing to provide critical support to low-income, minority communities when catastrophe strikes.

[Gothmog]

1. There was very unequal treatment of hurricane victims

Four lawyers in my office had damage and they are back in their houses