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Harris County, TX, September 28, 2026, Harris County will receive a one-year extension for eligible flood control projects funded through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, the Texas General Land Office (GLO) announced today. 

Back in 2021, Judge Lina Hidalgo fought to secure $1.26 billion in federal flood control funding for Harris County. $931 million of that went to the Harris County Housing & Community Development (HCD) department, and the remaining $330 million went to the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to help communities rebuild after Hurricane Harvey.

Since then, HCFCD committed to funding 28 flood control projects using CDBG funding. Originally, 11 of those 28 projects were funded with CDBG-Disaster Recovery (DR) dollars and 17 were funded with CDBG-Mitigation (MIT) dollars. After it came to the public’s attention that these projects were at risk of missing key federal deadlines and therefore not being completed, HCFCD adopted a plan in June to move approximately $90 million in flood control projects originally funded with CDBG-DR funding to the CDBG-MIT program, which has a later deadline for spending the funds. Even with this funding shift, many projects remained at risk – making an extension critical. 

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham shared that the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) approved the GLO’s request, made on behalf of Harris County, for one final extension based on the GLO’s strong track record of managing these funds. With the extension granted today, the federal deadline for CDBG-DR projects to be completed is now February 28, 2028 and the deadline for CDBG-MIT projects is March 31, 2029.

The news of the extension is especially good news for CDBG-DR funded projects with a tighter deadline. Out of HCFCD’s 28 CDBG-funded projects, 16 are currently in active construction (10 funded with a mix of CDBG-DR and MIT funding, 5 funded solely by CDBG-DR funding, and 1 funded solely by CDBG-MIT funding). 

HCFCD Executive Director Marcus Stuckett will present an update at the October 15, 2026 Commissioners Court on the plan going forward for the current and remaining CDBG-funded projects. 

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