Affirmative Marketing and Outreach Plan – 2017
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Harris County Community Services Department Affirmative Marketing and Outreach Plan 2017 Funding Prepared by Harris County Community Services Department March 2019 1 Executive Summary Hurricane Harvey was a Category 4 storm that hit Texas on August 25, 2017. The storm caused massive devastation in part because the hurricane remained stationary over Southeastern Texas after making landfall. Up to 50 inches of rainfall were recorded in certain areas, making it the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the United States. During the storm period, an estimated 25‐30% of the land in Harris County was submerged. Harris County, excluding the city of Houston, is home to approximately 2,295,446 residents and covers an area of 1,102 square miles. More than 96,000 parcels were flooded during the storm and over 128,000 structures on those parcels were damaged due to flooding. The County is one of the most diverse regions in the United States, meaning a multitude of communities were affected by Hurricane Harvey and need to receive aid. After the storm, CSD connected face‐to‐face with nearly a thousand residents in meetings held in every precinct. CSD was also able to collect surveys from 2035 residents of Harris County asking about their ongoing needs. From those surveys it became clear that the greatest housing need identified was repair and rehabilitation followed by the need to move people to safer neighborhoods. 49% of Harris County residents’ homes were damaged to the point that they were unlivable. In December 2017 only 13% of those families had completed repairs to their homes. Many residents reported at community meetings that only part of their home was livable as recently as June 2018. While over 80,000 homes in the 100‐ and 500‐year flood plains were damaged, there were also 69,000 homes outside the floodplain that were damaged. The breadth of damage led Harris County to offer repair and reimbursement programs to the entire county population. The primary purpose of this Affirmative Marketing and Outreach Plan is to communicate a cohesive, consistent plan for persuading eligible residents in Harris County to participate in CDBG‐DR programs that can help improve the safety of themselves and their families. The primary audience for this marketing and outreach plan includes all of Harris County excluding only residents who live within the limits of the City of Houston. Within this population, HCCSD will be making particular efforts to communicate with LMI residents. The only exception will be the audience for the Voluntary Buyout Program whose target audience will be further limited to targeted areas identified by HCCSD (from Flood Control District data) as most affected and hopelessly deep in the flood plain. HCCSD’s goal is that all affected residents will have the opportunity to provide ongoing input on the programs and to access services they are eligible to receive. To achieve this goal, the outreach activities for Project Recovery—Harvey will strive: 2 To deliver a concise, transparent overview of how CDBG‐DR funding is being made available and spent by program—via public meetings and publicly posted program guidelines. To ensure that all potentially eligible residents are aware of the post‐Harvey relief programs offered by HCCSD and given a chance to participate in them. To identify qualified participants by matching individual needs to specific programs. To ensure the maximum number of households are adequately served with the funding available. To ensure that all outreach efforts affirmatively further fair housing —i.e. marketing materials will be distributed in multiple languages, call center staff will be able to access translation services so that information can be distributed to ESL populations, HCCSD will partner with disability rights advocates to ensure that blind and deaf communities receive necessary information, and HCCSD will engage with nonprofit partners who work with vulnerable populations to try to reach displaced persons. HCCSD will ensure that marketing materials include contact information for those who need to request reasonable accommodations, and HCCSD will provide reasonable accommodations. OUTREACH GOALS AND STRATEGY A primary goal of this plan is to ensure equal access to all residents who might be eligible for HCCSD’s CDBG‐DR programs. Thus, this plan addresses strategies for reaching those residents who are least likely to apply for assistance due to various impediments—physical disability, mental disability, limited‐English‐proficiency, and lack of transportation. This plan addresses how HCCSD intends to help overcome those impediments to achieve equal access for residents. The Harris County Community Services Department has an opportunity to serve an unprecedented number of storm‐affected residents with services such as home repair, infrastructure improvements, and drainage. Therefore, the overarching communication goal of this outreach plan is to persuade eligible Harris County residents to participate in the programs Harris County is offering, which include: • Voluntary Buyout Program • Commercial Voluntary Buyout Program • Downpayment Assistance Program • Acquisition Services Program • Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) • Homeowner Reimbursement Program • Affordable Housing Preservation Program • Affordable Residential Development and New Construction Program This plan is designed to ensure that HCCSD is able to: 3 Educate residents about the existence of HCCSD’s CDBG‐DR programs and encourage them to apply and complete the application process Target marketing and outreach information to the most vulnerable populations in Harris County as identified by Regional Needs Assessment The overarching outreach strategy will include a range of tools to ensure a comprehensive roll‐ out of messaging on the availability of assistance programs. Harris County will ensure consistent and effective messaging by engaging in the following activities: advertising on tv and radio outlets that broadcast throughout Harris County, sending out electronic and traditional mail to addresses throughout Harris County, posting on social media platforms related to Harris County neighborhoods, advertising in community‐specific newspapers, door‐to‐door canvassing, and attending community‐based group meetings and neighborhood fairs. Utilizing the www.harrisrecovery.org site, Project Recovery‐Harvey will be consistently branded through strong local media partnerships in affected areas, the use of social networking media (Facebook, Twitter, Next Door), and printed materials distributed by HCCSD staff, public officials, small municipalities, and relevant non‐profit agencies. Through the staff in HCCSD’s Public Information Office (PIO), HCCSD will use its connections with local media outlets, nonprofit partners, and call center staff to maintain an ongoing list of issues, concerns, and suggestions. These will inform the Project Recovery‐Harvey team so that the team can make changes to outreach plans to make them more effective at reaching eligible populations and vulnerable members among those populations. HCCSD will maintain a list of stakeholders, interested parties, individuals, organizations, businesses, and others involved in the outreach and engagement process for use in ongoing outreach events. The outreach coordinator for HCCSD is ICF. The main contact is Zak Miller 713‐247‐9600. 4 MARKETING AND OUTREACH ACTIVITIES HCCSD will use a combination of marketing and outreach strategies, both general and specific. General marketing strategies include, but are not limited to: marketing via website, television, radio, newspaper, social media, and informational precinct meetings. Targeted efforts will include, but are not limited to: direct mailing, direct email, meetings in local communities, public meetings coordinated with non‐profit organizations and service providers, and door‐to‐ door canvassing. Marketing Activities Website A centralized website is a critical marketing tool. The website acts as an accessible, 24‐hour repository for all program information. The main website for HCCSD’s CDBG‐DR programs is www.harrisrecovery.org. The site is regularly updated so it can be used as a primary information source for residents, community partners, and developers. It serves as a powerful resource providing broad access to up‐to‐date educational materials and resources. The website is accessible so that persons with visual impairments can access the relevant information. The website will include: Information and advertisements for upcoming community events FAQs for each program, providing quick summaries of program goals and eligibility criteria Helpful homeowner guidance Information on HCCSD resource center locations and hours of operations All program guidelines, standard operating procedures, and updates to the action plan Television Television is one of the most powerful tools for reaching a large audience effectively. HCCSD has sent, and will send, marketing materials for all programs to stations that blanket storm‐ affected areas and reach all of Texas. This ensures that eligible residents who live in Harris County and those who have been displaced are able to receive program information. Stations may include: KFDM TV CH 6 ‐Beaumont KIAH TV Channel 39 KHOU Channel 11 KTRK‐TV KXLN Channel 45 – Univision 5 NBC Universal ‐ Telemundo Television News 4 WOAI‐TV in San Antonio NBC Universal, TLMD KTMD Telemundo Telemundo Houston ABC ‐ KTRK Channel 13 ABC News ‐ Thompsons, TX Afrocentric Network TV Azteca