Research Counts

By Chandler Ian Wilkins

“Call me, show me you care.” That was the plea from one public housing resident in Houston, Texas when asked what kind of support she wished she had received during 2023’s deadly Winter Storm Uri.

Her words convey a pattern that emerged from interviews I conducted with 24 residents across five of Houston’s public housing developments. During Winter Storm Uri and other recent disasters like Hurricane Harvey and the COVID-19 pandemic, many residents expressed a desire not only for resources, but for respect, connection, and dignity in these moments of crisis.

These appeals for recognition are not isolated. The Houston Housing Authority (HHA), which oversees 15 federally subsidized housing developments in the city, has faced criticism for mismanagement, lack of transparency, and a shift toward privatization. Residents’ concerns and the broader critiques of the HHA are indicative of a growing body of research that has found that people who live in public housing face unique challenges in the context of disasters and yet are often overlooked or excluded from decision-making. These systemic issues help explain why residents may feel forgotten and they underscore the urgent need for stronger institutional plans and resources to help residents.

Unmet Needs of Public Housing Residents

My research in Houston found that residents were not entirely unprepared for disasters. In fact, many proved knowledgeable and resourceful. Some spoke about relying on intuition and memories of Houston’s past storms to get through Hurricane Harvey, for instance. However, that experience did not translate to other, less familiar disasters like Winter Storm Uri, which brought rare freezing temperatures and snow to the city. Lacking both preparedness information and financial resources to purchase necessary supplies, some were caught off guard and left in harm’s way.

Public housing authorities have a formal responsibility to protect their residents before, during, and after disasters including communicating preparedness information. In 2022, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued comprehensive planning guidance to public housing authorities that emphasizing exactly that—guidance that, unlike the related fact sheets that remain on the HUD website, has been removed and is now only accessible via the Internet Archive.

Residents I spoke with described a standard process for receiving information from the HHA: flyers on doors, notices on bulletin boards, and announcements from property management. In an ideal scenario, this should ensure that everyone receives the same disaster preparedness information. In practice, residents noted that communication was inconsistent and often inequitable in terms of its uneven reach.

During the disasters, some residents received check-ins from HHA or property management staff. Others heard nothing at all—even within the same development. Additionally, several residents described favoritism in how information and supplies were distributed, explaining that emergency notices or supplies like water or meals were withheld, handed out unevenly, or even, in the case of food, taken home by property management staff. Together, these failures left residents without the resources and reassurance they needed to navigate disasters.

Resourcefulness and Agency in Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery

In the absence of consistent support from authorities, residents relied on each other. “Management was not around, but the neighbors were,” one resident said.

This informal mutual aid was crucial. Residents became first responders in their own communities—delivering food, sharing information, and offering comfort. These networks filled urgent needs, but residents were clear: these temporary fixes were not a substitute for institutional support.

Many expressed an interest in contributing to systematic disaster planning activities, but ultimately felt left out of the process. Numerous residents said they were unaware of public meetings held around the city to address disaster recovery. Even when meetings were well advertised, they weren’t always accessible. For example, transportation was a major barrier for some. The timing of meetings was a barrier for others, particularly meetings that start at or around 5:00 P.M.

While some residents remained eager to stay informed, others spoke to the exhaustion of having tried—often for decades—to make their voices heard. One resident reflected on the toll of repeated efforts to engage with decision makers who rarely responded: “I don’t have the personal gas for that [attending meetings] anymore… I don’t know if I would’ve had an impact. They don’t listen to us.”

Still, many voiced a desire to be involved not just in recovery, but in planning. They wanted transparency around allocation of funds, available resources, and how to access them, as well as real opportunities to contribute to disaster decision making.

Listening and Trust: Toward a More Equitable Disaster Response

Public housing residents I spoke with were not passive recipients of aid. They were proactive, resourceful, and deeply invested in their communities. They were also clear-eyed about how systemic failures directly affect people’s lives. In the absence of institutional support, they led anyway: checking on neighbors, sharing resources, and holding their communities together when the systems meant to protect them fell short.

Improving disaster response for public housing communities is not just about logistical refinements and investments in infrastructure, though those are critical measures to reduce physical and social vulnerability. It is also about listening deeply, building trust, and designing systems that ensure the leadership residents have already shown out of necessity becomes a genuine partnership—recognizing residents as full participants in their own safety.

Public housing authorities have a responsibility to understand the experiences and priorities of their residents. The development of comprehensive needs assessment frameworks which engage residents, especially those historically excluded from decision-making, should be an essential component of disaster planning and communication strategies.

Important emergency information should be gathered and shared in ways that meet residents where they are to ensure broad participation. This might mean a flyer slipped under every door, with multilingual versions of the text; a meeting announced in advance, in an accessible location, with transportation and childcare support. A phone call that says, “We are here, and we are listening.” And crucially, a commitment to follow through on resident feedback—not only during recovery phases but as part of ongoing planning and preparedness activities.

When public housing residents are excluded from the systems meant to protect them, disaster response becomes a site of inequity. Their experiences make clear that structural change is urgently needed and that a more equitable, compassionate, community-led response is not only necessary, but possible.