Harris County Outreach Efforts Successful During COVID

(TNS) – Despite limited funding, Harris County has performed surprisingly well in its outreach to vulnerable communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially to undocumented immigrants, according to a new report by the bipartisan think tank the Migration Policy Institute .

The organization took a deep dive into the county’s success in serving its 1.2 million foreign born residents, including more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants.

Immigrant communities were especially hard hit by the pandemic due to factors that included poor health care access, increased comorbidities and multi-generational housing, and at the same time many in these communities worked in jobs that were deemed essential.

Getting resources to immigrant communities can present challenges — like language barriers, limited internet access and transportation and mistrust — but Harris County and the city of Houston managed to pull it off, according to the report released Wednesday.

Here are six key takeaways from the national report.

1. Federal COVID-19 relief funding was not sufficient.

Non-citizen families in Houston who were struggling throughout the pandemic had far fewer options for financial aid than citizens, especially undocumented immigrants who were not eligible for unemployment or federal COVID-19 assistance.

Roughly 70 percent of COVID-19 direct assistance in Harris County was federally funded and therefore was only available to U.S. citizens, green card holders and some other immigrants.

Catholic Charities received the bulk of those relief funds and according to the report, denied 30 to 40 percent of applicants due to documentation problems, including 4,500 people who were prevented from receiving funds due to their immigration status.

These limitations left some immigrant families — many of them among the poorest people in the county — unable to access financial aid.

2. Harris County stepped up to fill in the gap, and so did private donors.

Harris County provided $30 million in COVID-19 relief through a program that used county revenues and did not restrict applicants based on their immigration status, as did federal funds.

Private philanthropists also filled in vital gaps. Donations allowed for immigrant communities to receive funds with fewer restrictions and without having to meet citizenship requirements.

3. The county’s pandemic response benefited from lessons learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

The report points out that the Houston region is disaster tested — which gave local governments a road map for ensuring aid reached the most vulnerable communities during the pandemic.

The region “learned so many lessons from Harvey and it improved on the lessons that it learned from Harvey in terms of targeting and inclusion and in terms of the fundamental thing here, which is to have in an immigrant aware policy,” said report author Michael Fix.

The organization’s analysis cites the Greater Houston Community Foundation, which raised millions of dollars for 123 nonprofit organizations after Harvey and created a system called Harvey Home Connect that targeted the elderly, low-income people and undocumented immigrants. That model was revived to distribute cash and housing assistance to immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. Data helped officials target the most vulnerable communities.

During the pandemic, Harris County used a data-driven approach to reach communities in need — which often included immigrant communities — to distribute assistance and also to deliver COVID-19 tests and vaccinations.

Harris County Public Health deployed mobile units to provide COVID-19 testing, and then vaccines, in high-need areas based on data from local Census tracts.

Mobile units were a more inclusive and flexible option than the mass testing centers, which necessitated more free time and transportation access for people to reach them.

5. Community-based organizations worked together to offer a more equitable response

A number of coalitions — including the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative and Houston in Action — played vital roles in connecting community organizations with government and private resources that resulted in the overall response being more equitable and intentional across the county.

Houston in Action, which had been working on Census outreach, activated its community-based organizations to access hard-to-reach residents, such as refugees, and helped them get vaccinated by using text messaging, phone banks and door-to-door canvassing through an effort called “Safer Together.”

The U.S. Treasury Department specifically praised Harris County and the city of Houston’s efforts to distribute emergency rental assistance, in particular because they utilized culturally and linguistically relevant services through well-known local nonprofits.

“Every time policymakers think about the needs and the concerns and the challenges that immigrant communities face, then the outcome would be more inclusive,” said Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative director Zenobia Lai. She said it was meaningful that county leaders were open to bringing immigrant voices to the table for the pandemic response. It made a difference that Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, an immigrant herself, understands the unique needs of these communities.

“Immigrants will find a way to do their part and give back to their communities and all of us in government must work to make sure we’re inclusive in our policy making and crisis response,” Hidalgo said, in response to the report. “Immigrants rise to the task at hand, and we should too.”

6. Regardless of the efforts, a lot of people still fell through the gaps due to limited funds.

In spite efforts from private sector and local government, the county’s limited funding was not nearly enough to cover the needs of the region’s more than 400,000 undocumented people.

“It’s not a heroic amount of money to serve an extremely large population,” Fix said. The report’s author said about $50 million in COVID relief funds were unrestricted by immigration status in Harris County, but that paled in comparison to New York, where the state government set aside $2.1 billion for undocumented immigrants impacted by the pandemic.

elizabeth.trovall@chron.com

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