HOUSTON – Houston's City Council Wednesday approved $2 million in funds earmarked to help city residents still struggling to repair their roof, eight years after Hurricane Ike made landfall in southeast Texas.
The Blue Tarp Program, as it's more commonly known, will help replace the roof of homes still draped by blue tarps following the storm.
"The city has identified approximately 550 homes with tarps on the roof," said Mayor Sylvester Turner, following Wednesday's City Council meeting.
Turner said the funds will help 200 homes that remain in disrepair. The remaining 350 are either vacant are beyond the point of repair.
September marks eight years since Hurricane Ike came ashore, leaving behind over $3 billion in damage to homes in Texas alone. In some Houston neighborhoods, blue tarp roofs remain a common sight. The Southpark neighborhood, on the city's south side, is one of them.
"We just kind of patched it up, paid someone to patch it up," Linda Bailey said.
Bailey and others applied for aid from FEMA in the weeks following Ike, but were denied for various reasons.
"We just left it alone and we never did get help," Bailey said.
Bailey told KPRC 2 a representative from the city surveyed her home last week. She said she's waiting for what she hopes will be a good answer.
"We really need to have it fixed," she said.
Turner said the $2 million will be allocated to fix houses that qualify in coming months. The city's housing department, along with nonprofit organization Rebuilding Together Houston, are working to identify homes to repair.
To qualify, the city said homes must be occupied by the owner, have blue tarps on the roof and "the total annual gross income of the Owner's household does not exceed 120% of the AMI adjusted for family size," according to a statement.