By Leah Ayer, West Street Recovery Member
Rebuilding Houston communities disproportionately impacted by Hurricane Harvey waits for no one, including the holidays
(Photo Courtesy: WSR)
It looks like Texas winter is actually here. At West Street Recovery (WSR), we’ve spent the last month balancing the busyness of the holiday celebrations in our homes while doing our best to support folks who have little left to enjoy their own celebrations.
For Thanksgiving, we helped deliver meals to a number of families on our case list and a toy drive in New Orleans gave us the opportunity to play Santa and distribute toys to some other families. We’ve also been getting goods to grassroots organizations doing great work to serve their communities with little to no assistance: the National Black United Front’s Feed the Hood, Njoya Weyusi Saturday School program and G.O.D.S. in the Tre’ Afrikan centered preschool program. Beyond our own efforts, WSR case managers also connected with Texas Children’s Hospital, who provided children’s gifts for ten families this Christmas and Thanksgiving meals for several others.
We also supported three families to reach a move-back-in milestone by supporting their rebuilding efforts - helping to hang sheetrock and “tape and float,” which connects drywall pieces into walls - so that families could move onto painting. It’s amazing how different a house looks with walls! One of the houses also needed major siding repair, which we supported with materials and volunteers. We’re nearly done with two other projects: one small back house and one kitchen, along with a bedroom project that will allow a family to move out of their FEMA motel while the rest of their home is rebuilt.
With a decent sized list of cases needing rebuild assistance and our case management team working double time, we’re trying to figure out how to make both efforts more sustainable. The obvious solution is to get more staff, so we’ve been fundraising with that in mind. We were cautious when we first started talking about providing some of our WSR members with stipends, but we’re really glad we made the decision to do so. The members who are getting paid are retaining their autonomy and vision; it’s never felt like they’re working for WSR, but gosh dang they are tireless in their work!
In our last blog post, we wrote about how we’ve been assisting wife and husband Petra and Raul in their rebuild since Harvey flooded their home in the Lakewood community of Northeast Houston. And now we’re excited to have some new and very special folks join WSR as members: their adult children, Cindy and Javier! They bring great fresh energy to our projects and add new perspective to our group. After we wrapped up the main projects at Petra and Raul’s house, Raul, Cindy, and Javier joined our next rebuild project at the home of another Lakewood resident who has also been distributing goods to his neighbors and mucking dozens of houses. Cindy kicks butt at taping and floating, Javier is so encouraging and fun to work with, and we’re so thankful that our maestro Raul is still around so we can bug him with our amateur questions.
WRS Member Cindy (whose parents Petra and Raul were affected by Harvey) wet standing like a champ!
(Photo Courtesy: WSR)
From an organizer’s perspective, it feels really good to be participating in recovery efforts that center and attract folks who experienced the worst of a crisis themselves. We hope to continue incorporating more and more affected residents in our work. It’s amazing to work so closely with people who have lost most of everything, are still in the throes of their own recovery, and are still so happy and willing to make time to help their neighbors.
We hope y’all enjoyed safe, warm holidays, and we thank you so much for your continued support!
Happy New Year!
