Houston officials hear widespread calls to shift disaster-recovery plan money toward home repairs and generators

Mayor John Whitmire and dozens of residents spent much of Tuesday's Houston City Council meeting focused on how the city should spend roughly $315,000,000 in federal disaster-recovery money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Public commenters urged the council to delay a vote and redirect more of the funds to single-family home repairs, rental assistance and backup power for community centers.

Why it matters: Hundreds of thousands of Texans filed claims after recent storms, and many Houstonians remain in homes with tarps, mold and structural damage. Council's decision about the CDBG-DR plan will shape which needs the federal money can address and whether the city complies with HUD's requirement to prioritize the largest unmet needs.

Mayor John Whitmire opened the discussion by describing the federal funding negotiations that produced the $315 million award and by urging public participation in the plan's hearings. Whitmire told the council that HUD had expressed concern about past uses of federal funds but that the city had worked to restore trust: "We received last October, after months of negotiations and requests for hundreds of…