The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country has awarded $24 million in grants for flood recovery in the Hill Country and South Texas, foundation officials said Wednesday during a virtual media briefing marking three months since the July 16 flood.
Foundation CEO Austin Dickson and leaders from three partner nonprofits described where the money is going. It pays for emergency cash assistance, case management, temporary housing, small business loans and home repairs. Dickson said families are rebuilding without FEMA Individual Assistance, and local donors and nonprofits are trying to fill the gap.
“Twenty-four million dollars is a significant investment, but the measure of our work is not dollars granted, it’s how many families get back into their homes, how many small businesses reopen their doors, and how many of our neighbors can get on with their lives,” Dickson said.
Where the money is going
In the Hill Country, Dickson said the foundation’s grants include:
• About $1.3 million in emergency financial assistance, which helped 974 households, according to the foundation’s news release.
• About $1.9 million for case management over the next year and a half;
• $5 million to LiftFund for small business recovery;
• About $1 million for temporary housing assistance. The news release lists that grant as $967,575 to First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville. As of Oct. 13, 58 households had received help, and 38 more families had confirmed they were eligible and turned in the required documents;
• About $8.8 million for home repair and rebuilding. As of Oct. 13, 112 households had been referred for home repair help, according to the release.
“Small business recovery is essential for rural economies affected by disaster,” Dickson said.
In South Texas, the foundation has put more than $1 million into emergency financial assistance for flood survivors. It also pays for “resource navigation,” which helps families find out what aid exists and how to get it. Separately, the foundation granted about $1.4 million to Rebuilding Together Austin San Antonio to begin home repairs.
“Families are continuing to recover without FEMA individual assistance, and philanthropy and local nonprofits are helping fill critical gaps,” Dickson said.
Damage reports and case management
Through the foundation’s online Needs Assessment, residents have reported 1,103 flood-damaged homes in Kerr County and Comfort, Dickson said in an email Tuesday. The foundation says the number comes from what residents told it. It is not a verified count of damaged properties.
The Hill Country Community Journal asked how many homes were damaged and how many families were displaced. Dickson said more than 1,000 families have registered some kind of damage in the needs assessment. He urged residents who have not signed up to do so at rebuildkerr.org or rebuildtexashillcountry.org. Families in the system can be connected directly with case management or resource navigation, he said.
The public can see needs assessment results by clicking “Community Data” at the bottom of rebuildkerr.org. Dickson said the foundation has promoted the assessment on social media and through local newspapers.
Since July 16, the foundation has matched 1,064 households with a case manager, Dickson said in the email. Those case managers have closed 219 cases after meeting the households’ needs. The other 845 households are still in active case management.
Thirty-nine case managers handle those cases. All are local residents who work for three nonprofits: Light on the Hill, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and Center Point Alliance for Progress. They train together and use a shared technology platform, and grants from the foundation pay for all of them.
“We are particularly proud of these local heroes, whose dedication and personal commitment are helping families navigate the complicated process of recovery,” Dickson wrote.
Home repairs under way
The foundation has awarded home repair and rebuilding grants for Kerr County and Comfort to five nonprofits, Dickson said in the email. They are All Hands & Hearts, Connective, Episcopal Relief and Development, Habitat for Humanity Kerr County and Hunt Preservation Society.
Other groups, including Texans on Mission and Samaritan’s Purse, are also helping flood-affected families. Dickson noted that the foundation’s numbers cover only the programs it funds directly. They do not reflect all the recovery work under way in the community.
Alix Seyfarth, director of strategy at All Hands & Hearts, said about 20 cases have been referred to the global disaster recovery nonprofit so far, and its teams have assessed 15 of them.
“Starting repairs at just the three-month mark is a remarkable milestone, and in our experience, that timeline usually takes closer to six months,” Seyfarth said. “That speed is a testament to the resilience of this community, the urgency of the Community Foundation, and the lessons learned from the last year.”
Based on reported needs, All Hands & Hearts has committed to working in Kerr and Kendall counties through spring 2028, Seyfarth said. With the foundation’s funding, the group plans to work on 60 homes in that time. Right now it is focused on Kerrville, with a few homes in Ingram, while other grantees cover the rest of the county.
“Families whose homes were damaged by the floods still face significant repairs, and those needs can shape daily life long after the disaster itself,” Seyfarth said in the foundation’s news release.
South Texas recovery
Dickson said state data and the foundation’s needs assessment show Uvalde and Zavala counties were the hardest-hit counties in South Texas.
The Rebuilding Together Austin San Antonio grant covers households in Uvalde County, Dickson said. The foundation is reviewing possible grantees to support Zavala County. Its grants to Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of San Antonio, help families in both counties.
Dickson said the foundation has invested more than $1.3 million in Catholic Charities to support flood survivors in South Texas.
Omar Davila, senior director at Catholic Charities, said the agency has given families flexible financial assistance since July. Families have used it to buy flood recovery supplies, groceries, gas and other essentials, and staff members have helped them find local resources.
“The goal is to help people move from an immediate need toward greater stability with support that reflects their circumstances,” Davila said.
Jesse Porter, executive director of Rebuilding Together Austin San Antonio, said his group repairs homes to make them safe and accessible. It serves income-eligible homeowners, veterans, families with children, seniors and people with disabilities. Porter said the group already has contractors in place in South Texas.
“One of the largest social determinants of health is a safe and healthy home,” Porter said. “When people are stressed or scared or worried, the best thing they can do is go home where they feel safe, and so we need to make that a safe place for them.”
Jayme Johnston, director of the Uvalde Together Resiliency Center, said in a statement that the flood has brought “additional stress and anxiety to our community, which continues to carry so much.”
“Over the past four and a half years, I’ve learned that some of the greatest needs surface after the immediate attention has passed,” Johnston said.
Fundraising and federal gaps
The foundation has raised $6.6 million in new money for recovery from the July 16 flood, Dickson said in response to a reporter’s question. Most of its grants so far have come from money the foundation repurposed from 2025, as donors intended, he said.
Asked how much more money it would take to fill the gap left by FEMA, Dickson said the foundation finds that hard to calculate.
“Philanthropy cannot replace the … responsibilities of government, but we can move quickly and adapt to local circumstances to reach as many people as possible,” he said. “We do not have enough funds to completely recover an entire community without federal assistance, but we’re gonna do what we can, and we’re not gonna wait on a federal decision to help people rebuild their lives.”
The foundation posts every grant at rebuildtexashillcountry.org, listing the grantee, the amount and the purpose, and adds new grants as it makes them.
“The Community Foundation’s role is to turn the generosity of thousands of people into real help for families who need it, and we’re going to stay at that work for as long as it takes,” Dickson said.
Leave a Reply