The Texas Legislature kicked off its 2017 session on January 10, with plenty of housing-related bills already filed, proposed or in discussion. To get a preview of the housing issues likely to stand out at this year’s session, I spoke with our fair housing planner and point person at the Legislature, Charlie Duncan:
Specific bills discussed:
HB 192 (Bernal): Prohibiting housing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity
HB 312 (Johnson of Harris): Creating a disaster recovery fund
HB 616 (Leach): Removing state representative support from the housing tax credit scoring system
HB 885 (King of Hemphill): Adding state senator support to the housing tax credit scoring system
SB 92 (Hall): Prohibiting local ordinances that add protected classes beyond state law
SB 165 (Rodríguez, et al.): Prohibiting certain discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity
SB 242 (Burton): Requiring public schools to release information to parents
SB 351 (Watson): Creating a disaster recovery fund
