Publicly subsidized disasters: Disaster recovery and dispossession in Houston-Galveston
Open Access
- Author:
- Young, Travis Michael
- Graduate Program:
- Geography
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 07, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Barrett Lee, Outside Unit & Field Member
Jennifer Baka, Major Field Member
Stephen Matthews, Major & Minor Field Member
Christopher Fowler, Chair, Minor Member & Dissertation Advisor
Brian King, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Disaster recovery
Vulnerability
Dispossession - Abstract:
- Disaster recovery processes often reshape places to a greater degree than the actual hazard events themselves – restructuring their physical, economic, and social makeup. These rebuilding activities displace vulnerable populations, attract new residents and businesses, and alter neighborhood aesthetics. In the Houston-Galveston region, where flooding is a regular occurrence for some, disaster recovery discourse and policy are major drivers of neighborhood change and population displacement. Through three case studies, I examine how the construction of vulnerability and disaster recovery processes interact to displace and dispossess low-income households. I rely on archival research; community and participant observation from ten months of field work after Hurricane Harvey; and over 100 interviews with renters, homeowners, planners, and community advocates to illustrate how historical development decisions shape vulnerability over the long-term in contrast to the rapid changes that occur after a disaster. By taking this historical-spatial approach, I am able to show the role that community leadership and recovery discourses play in sanctioning change and crafting new narratives of vulnerability and resilience. I argue that an accumulation of predatory development decisions and embedded barriers to affordable housing have disproportionately pushed low-income populations into areas of greater risk. This in turn, leads to increased disinvestment and displacement patterns that disproportionately impact low-income communities of color. The end results illustrate how free-market, resilience, and recovery discourses conceal historical disparities and (re)produce existing inequities through uneven policies in post-disaster scenarios.