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Overview
The current inadequate physical
infrastructure in many "Colonias"
along the Texas/Mexico Rio Grande border severely affects the current quality
of life of their residents, and rivals those found in developing countries: inadequate housing anda lack of transportation, water, energy, and
communications systems. In addition,
- poor economic conditions,
- limited economic
opportunities, and
- low income, combined with
- limited mobility,
- limited literacy
and fluency in English, and
- limited understanding of, information about, and
accessibility to, basic services and programs of town, school, and agency
office systems,
have contributed to perpetuate the current isolation of colonia
residents. Furthermore, their quality of life many times is reduced to mere
statistics that do not capture the human dimension of their plight, making the
reality of life in the colonias mostly unknown to anyone outside their
boundaries.
As a partial response to this situation, the Texas State Legislature created in
1991 the Colonias Program within CHUD. The intent of this mandate was to
provide colonia residents access to
- educational services (e.g., literacy, GED, job training, dropout prevention),
- job referral,
- health and human services,
- youth, elderly, and economic and community development assistance,
with the goals of
- reducing their isolation,
- increasing their ability to become self-sufficient,
- and enhancing their quality of life.
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