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Round One Investments
$1.3 Million Invested in Grants to Nonprofits Serving Impacted Households
Data-informed grants from the Severe Weather & Derecho Recovery Fund to help households most impacted by recent storms
June 5, 2024 – The Disaster Alliance is investing $1.3 million from its Severe Weather and Derecho Recovery Fund in grants to help area neighbors who are struggling to recover from severe weather that impacted the region over the past month. This round of grants will provide emergency financial assistance for basic needs including food, water, and medication; flexible emergency financial assistance to help households cover various disaster relief and recovery related expenses; and resource navigation support to help people access additional recovery services, such as FEMA and Small Business Administration assistance. To move quickly and efficiently in getting aid to those in need, grants are distributed through a trusted network of nonprofit partners based on capability to provide needed services and geographical reach to affected communities in the City of Houston and Harris, Montgomery and Waller counties.
Round One Nonprofit Partners
Basic Emergency Financial Assistance
- Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston ($50,000)
- Community Assistance Center ($30,000)
- Fifth Ward CRC ($50,000)
- Humble Area Assistance Ministries ($30,000)
- Target Hunger ($50,000)
- Tejano Center for Community Concerns, Inc. ($50,000)
Flexible Emergency Financial Assistance & Resources Navigation
- Community Family Center/Centros Familiares de la Comunidad ($100,000)
- East Harris County Empowerment Council ($100,000)
- Easter Seals of Greater Houston, Inc. ($100,000)
- Family Service Center of Houston and Harris County ($100,000)
- Hope Disaster Recovery, LLC ($100,000)
- Memorial Assistance Ministries, Inc. ($100,000)
- Society of St. Vincent de Paul Archdiocese of Galveston Houston ($100,000)
- Volunteers of America Texas ($100,000)
- Wesley Community Center ($100,000)
- West Street Recovery ($100,000)
Greater Houston Disaster Alliance invited nonprofits that provide emergency financial assistance and resource navigation for populations in the hardest hit zip codes in our region to submit round 1 grant applications. Visit the For Nonprofits page for more information.
Data Sources
The Disaster Alliance compiled available data thanks to close working relationships with Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM), Offices of Emergency Management of impacted Counties, and Connective.
Data sources to inform the disproportionately impacted zip codes analysis included:
- Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool (iSTAT) – a tool developed for TDEM to assess and manage disaster response efforts within Texas iSTAT.
- 211 Calls for Assistance – United Way of Greater Houston’s 211 call center received disaster-related calls from April 26 – May 21 from Harris, Montgomery, and Waller counties, with food pantries/basic needs, shelters, FEMA and other resource navigation assistance, and disaster-related financial assistance as the primary services requested.
- ALICE Households – ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households earn just above the Federal Poverty Level but less than what it costs to make ends meet. These measurements provide a broader picture of financial insecurity than traditional federal poverty guidelines and are key to understanding how many people in our community struggle to get by. The data come from United for ALICE, a research initiative by United Way of Greater Houston, and are reflective of household status by ZIP code in the region in 2022.
- Households Living at/below Poverty – The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) provides the percentage of households whose income falls at/below the poverty threshold.
- Social Vulnerability Index – SVI is a tool that uses U.S. census data to identify communities most vulnerable to external stresses on human health, including natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and other emergencies, by assessing various socioeconomic and demographic factors.
- Connective Needs Assessment and FEMA Individual Assistance Registrants.
Other trusted data sources used to inform our understanding of local need include:
Priority Zip Codes
A comprehensive analysis of zip codes was conducted using the above sources, resulting in the identification of 31 unique zip codes that span across the City of Houston and surrounding counties, including Harris, Montgomery, and Waller.
