After the Hurricane Harvey disaster here in Houston, where our home flooded, FEMA funded transitional housing for us, as part of our flood insurance, until our house was livable again. That transitional housing had been an incredible blessing to us and we've appreciated it. Our home is being remediated and rebuilt and is expected to be completed in another 4 to 5 months.
Not long after the flood, FEMA teamed up with the Texas General Land Office (GLO) and created a program called Texas Rebuilds, website TexasRebuilds.com. It is also known as Texas Preps. The goal of this program was to help speed up the process of getting flood victims out of transitional housing and back into their homes. A grand and noble goal for sure. What could possibly go wrong, correct?
So Texas Preps approached us and said that they would like to help us out. We welcomed them with open arms. It was like the cavalry riding in. And sure enough, they came in with a crew of guys and installed some sheetrock and insulation in the walls, to replace the sheetrock and insulation that got destroyed in the flood. It was a huge help and we really appreciated those guys. And I"m sure it did speed up the process.
The key thing is that Texas Preps work in no way made the house livable. At the completion of their work, I signed their work order acknowledging what they did for us. But when they walked out the door, we still had no kitchen, no sinks, no tubs, no showers, no hot water heater, no oven, no refrigerator, and most of the electrical plugs didn't work.
But nobody at Texas Rebuilds / Texas Preps at any point in time before, during, or after their work ever told us of the trap door with this program, the dirty little secret that turned into a mini-disaster for us. Here it is:
When a completed work order is sent from Texas Preps to FEMA, FEMA automatically cancels your transitional housing! No questions asked, no discussion, it's all computer-generated. Even though we had already been pre-approved by FEMA for transitional housing, 2 days after Texas Preps walked out of our home, a computer-generated call from FEMA said "now that your home is livable again, your transitional housing is cancelled and you need to be out within 3 days."
Needless to say, our home is NOT livable, but FEMA thinks it is, based upon the completed Texas Preps work order. I spent about 10 hours in calls with FEMA, GLO, and Texas Preps to find out how to correct the error and to set the record straight. All 3 agencies pointed the finger at each other, and all of them said "The program is the program, there's nothing we can do about this."
The old Hippocratic oath for doctors is: "First, do no harm." These 3 government agencies should pay heed to that. We wish now we had never heard of this organization. We'll now be paying for transitional housing on our own for the next 4 to 5 months, instead of having it covered as it had been prior. The cost of that expense will exceed the value of the sheetrock that Texas Preps provided for us.
Their goal is to help, but the end result for us was harm. So beware and don't let this agency screw you up.
Texas Rebuilds Reviews
After the Hurricane Harvey disaster here in Houston, where our home flooded, FEMA funded transitional housing for us, as part of our flood insurance, until our house was livable again. That transitional housing had been an incredible blessing to us and we've appreciated it. Our home is being remediated and rebuilt and is expected to be completed in another 4 to 5 months.
Not long after the flood, FEMA teamed up with the Texas General Land Office (GLO) and created a program called Texas Rebuilds, website TexasRebuilds.com. It is also known as Texas Preps. The goal of this program was to help speed up the process of getting flood victims out of transitional housing and back into their homes. A grand and noble goal for sure. What could possibly go wrong, correct?
So Texas Preps approached us and said that they would like to help us out. We welcomed them with open arms. It was like the cavalry riding in. And sure enough, they came in with a crew of guys and installed some sheetrock and insulation in the walls, to replace the sheetrock and insulation that got destroyed in the flood. It was a huge help and we really appreciated those guys. And I"m sure it did speed up the process.
The key thing is that Texas Preps work in no way made the house livable. At the completion of their work, I signed their work order acknowledging what they did for us. But when they walked out the door, we still had no kitchen, no sinks, no tubs, no showers, no hot water heater, no oven, no refrigerator, and most of the electrical plugs didn't work.
But nobody at Texas Rebuilds / Texas Preps at any point in time before, during, or after their work ever told us of the trap door with this program, the dirty little secret that turned into a mini-disaster for us. Here it is:
When a completed work order is sent from Texas Preps to FEMA, FEMA automatically cancels your transitional housing! No questions asked, no discussion, it's all computer-generated. Even though we had already been pre-approved by FEMA for transitional housing, 2 days after Texas Preps walked out of our home, a computer-generated call from FEMA said "now that your home is livable again, your transitional housing is cancelled and you need to be out within 3 days."
Needless to say, our home is NOT livable, but FEMA thinks it is, based upon the completed Texas Preps work order. I spent about 10 hours in calls with FEMA, GLO, and Texas Preps to find out how to correct the error and to set the record straight. All 3 agencies pointed the finger at each other, and all of them said "The program is the program, there's nothing we can do about this."
The old Hippocratic oath for doctors is: "First, do no harm." These 3 government agencies should pay heed to that. We wish now we had never heard of this organization. We'll now be paying for transitional housing on our own for the next 4 to 5 months, instead of having it covered as it had been prior. The cost of that expense will exceed the value of the sheetrock that Texas Preps provided for us.
Their goal is to help, but the end result for us was harm. So beware and don't let this agency screw you up.