HOUSTON — Helping Houston’s vulnerable population--that's at the center of the city’s first resilience hub in Kashmere Gardens. It’s a pilot program that will eventually expand to multiple corners of the city. It's big news for communities often left on the margins.
Many in Kashmere Gardens are still working to recover from Harvey’s devastation and the 2021 winter storm power outages. Often, residents struggle to pinpoint where to access resources. This resilience hub is a one-stop shop where people can come for help not just during disaster, but all year long.
Kashmere Gardens is a place where you'll find community if you ask Ella Trahan and Carolyn Jones.
"I feel very good about it. It’s a family community, I really feel like part of the community," said Trahan.
They've been around for a while and have seen firsthand the longstanding disparities. But they celebrate the ongoing work to make things better by building resiliency.
"Even after the hurricane, you still see blue tarps. But you also see people that are not only indigent. You see people who don’t know what resources are available," said Jones.
They joined Mayor Sylvester Turner and other city leaders to christen the first-ever resilience hub in the city of Houston.
"We’ve been through as a city seven federally declared disasters. We’ve gone through COVID. Many other ups and downs," said Turner.
The Kashmere Gardens Multi-Service Center has undergone a wide range of improvements, setting the stage for what officials say will be a one-stop shop for much-needed support and taking away the hassle of calling around to try and pinpoint vital resources.
"I don’t think people really realize what it entails to get these kinds of things launched until you’ve lived in an area like Kashmere Gardens, where things have been promised for years and years and years," said Northeast Houston Redevelopment Council President Huey German-Wilson.
The resilience hub is an outcome of the Resilient Houston and Climate Action Plan bringing together the city and a network of facilities like schools, libraries churches.
"They've started to focus on us, Kashmere community," said Trahan.
The hub will serve as a launching pad to activate support during disasters and provide help with everyday stressors, like inadequate housing and food insecurity.
"Fresh vegetables - that may seem like woah - but here a lot of amenities that people take for granted they didn’t have," said Jones.
Mayor Turner said he's working with national organizations to try to name the city of Houston as the country’s first resilience hub. Other work includes adding support to Alief and transforming the Sunnyside and Acres Homes community centers.