BE 100s CEO Steps Up to Assist Harvey Victims With $62 Million Fund

Hurricane Harvey

Tony Chase, chairman and CEO of ChaseSource L.P. (No. 87 on the BE 100s with revenues of $30.2 million), is doing his part to help Hurricane Harvey victims.

Chase is volunteering to serve as co-chair of the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, which as of Tuesday, raised more than $62 million to assist people and businesses devastated by the ravaging storm.

Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey Impacts (Image: iStock/Karl Spencer)

 

 

Overwhelming Response from Community to Offer Support

 

Chase, and Bill Jackson, the Harris County budget director, will co-chair the fund’s 10-member advisory committee. It was set up in late August by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett after getting a massive amount of inquiries from citizens and companies wanting to help.

Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, is located in Harris County. The HHRF is accepting tax-deductible flood relief donations.

 

Funds Will Assist with Everything from Housing to Childcare

 

The Greater Houston Community Foundation is overseeing the fund. The funds will be granted to nonprofits who will then provide direct services such as shelter and temporary housing, food, supplies, transportation, healthcare, and childcare to Harvey victims.

Chase owns ChaseSource L.P., a Houston-based staffing, construction, and facilities management firm with about 120 employees. He owns the 550-room Marriott Hotel at George Bush InterContinental Airport in Houston. He has served as deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership. He serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards.

(Chase speaking at a Greater Houston Partnership Meeting in 2013. Video: YouTube/Greater Houston Partnership)

 

Chase accepted the co-chair role after being approached by Turner. “I agreed to serve because I’m a native Houstonian who cares deeply about our community,” Chase says. “I also want to support our mayor who has done a tremendous job overseeing the city’s response to the storm.”

The fund, along with federal and state efforts, is geared toward relief and reconstruction efforts to help Houston rebuild after Harvey. Chase says the fund will address needs not met by federal funds and other relief efforts.

Providing Aid to Those Who Might Not Get Help Otherwise

 

An example would be providing support to meet the needs of a large undocumented community residing in Houston who do not qualify for federal funds due to their lack of citizenship status, Chase says.

Another case might be aiding small businesses, including black businesses, who often do not have the collateral or capacity to rebuild. “Those two groups are the type of victims that would be eligible to receive assistance from the fund,” he says.

Chase says the advisory committee’s main efforts now include raising additional funds and making decisions about how the funds are dispersed in the community.

Helping folks devastated by natural disasters get back on their feet is nothing new to the Greater Houston Community Foundation. The public charitable foundation administered the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund, the Hurricane Ike Recovery Fund, and the Storm Relief Fund of 2016. All told, GHCF has raised over $200 million for those disaster relief funds as well as the HHRF.