Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson saw firsthand some of the damage left behind from Tropical Storm Harvey’s flooding, and he said he is impressed by the response.

“First of all, I’ve very gratified by the rapidity of the response and the coordination of the response and the involvement at the state and local level with the federal authorities,” Carson said during a tour of three Port Arthur housing developments that saw flood damage on Friday. “It’s working. Are there things to be improved, things to be learned? Yes of course there are and we’re constantly in that mode.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush joined Carson in tours of Lakeview Palms, Park Central Housing Development and Bellbrook Estates.

Carson noted that the housing developments were created through the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program following Hurricane Ike.

“What it really shows is the ability to take public funding and combine with them with private interests and really create very viable dwellings in neighborhoods that are nourishing and this is what we need to be doing across the country,” he said.

Learning from the past can bring knowledge to give more protection in the future, he added.

“We have to have the ability to weigh things in the appropriate ways because what we have to remember is, if we can get people back to work again they become part of the economy, part of the contributors rather than part of what has to be supported and it will get us all moving in the right direction faster,” he said.

The issue of debris collection is one of the main problems in the aftermath of the historic flooding. To aid in this, Abbott presented Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick with a $2.6 million check.

Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman said the city would also see funds to help with the debris cleanup.

“The governor said he’d have us a check ready Monday or Tuesday,” Freeman said. “So we’re excited, we’re optimistic and we are encouraged by their visit today.”

Land Commissioner George P. Bush also mentioned the housing issue.

“We have just set up a website at texasrebuilds.com where all Texans up and down the coast can learn more about the five options available,” Bush said. “we have partnered with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) in an innovative fashion to triage the need as soon as possible. It will be a combination of direct repair, something similar to what we’ve witnessed today to mobile housing units and also multi-family complex rehab and repair.”

Bush said this would be a multi faceted approach “to deliver the full swift and available resources of the federal government in partnership with the State of Texas to get people back in their homes.”

Freeman, in speaking after the main press conference, said the city is doing al they can to bring people back home who were evacuated during the flood.

“The thing we want our citizens to know, wherever they are, is that we want you back home in your neighborhoods and we’re doing everything we can to make sure you have a comfortable place to come back to in Port Arthur,” Freeman said.

A hotline number will be setup for those residents, he said.

Freeman said the city is working with federal agencies to find an appropriate place for citizens to apply for DSNAP, or disaster food benefits. Those benefits are not yet available in Jefferson County, and they are controlled by the state.

Residents of Lakeview Palms came out to video the scene as the politicians and political appointee walked through the housing development.

Paulette Guillory and Shamika Vaughns were glad to see the goings on but are worried about the current housing needs in the city.

Guillory, who has two children and works at Walmart, is worried about her future and that of her neighbors, she said. Vaughns said she is still in shock because she had never been in a hurricane before.

“Some people here, this is all they have and they lost everything,” Vaughns said as she pointed to a severely damaged apartment. “It’s sad that assistance is not coming in to provide a stable foundation for people to stay. Some people say they don’t have the credit to qualify for an SBA (Small Business Administration disaster) loan. How are we going to get help? It’s disheartening.”

Over at Park Central housing development, Martha Wiltz pushed a shopping cart filled with storm debris to a trash pile. She evacuated during to Fort Worth during Harvey and now, with her home severely damaged, she’s going to go back. She had hoped the property owners would have offered tenants an upstairs apartment, she said.

“I’m choosing to move back to Fort Worth. There’s more opportunity for help there,” Wiltz, who has lived in the city for 12 years, said. “There’s no place to stay here, all the apartments are filled.”

Wiltz and her sister both saw storm damage and are temporarily living with family elsewhere.

She said the experience at the Fort Worth evacuation shelter was not a good one. She called it nasty and said there were feminine hygiene products strewn about as well as feces not to mention crime. She stayed in her car for a while then ended up at a motel.

More than 80 percent of the city saw damage from flooding and some residents lost their homes to the damage while some apartment dwellers were evicted due to the damage.