There is no question that the impetus for Congress passing and President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the 1968 Fair Housing…
Author: Michael Depland
The distribution of Texas’ disaster recovery funds exemplifies inequity. Here’s how we told the State to fix it.
There is a painful misconception in disaster recovery that is sometimes used as an excuse to maintain the status quo:…
Podcast Episode 22: Creosote in the Greater Fifth Ward
The Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens areas of Houston are historic Black neighborhoods where families have proudly planted roots for…
The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act of 2019 succeeds in the House of Representatives, but more work lies ahead
The Federal Reforming Disaster Recovery Act of 2019 (RDRA) passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 18, 2019…
Episode 20: A Look At RAD Conversion
In 2012, Congress authorized some public housing agencies to convert units from their original federally-funded public housing developments to project-based Section 8…
Texas is below average nationwide in required affordability for LIHTC properties. TDHCA is charging to change that.
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is the largest source of funding for affordable multifamily property development and…
Episode 19: Disaster recovery is leaving out renters
When a disaster hits, flooding and fires might not discriminate, but the systems and funding intended to rebuild our communities…
The 2019 Houser Awards spotlighted outstanding achievement in housing justice and a new vision for Texas
On Tuesday, November 5, the collective power of housing justice in Texas was gathered all in one room to honor…
Listen to Texas Housers on KUT radio explaining HUD’s attempted dismantling of the Disparate Impact Rule
As the decision from HUD on keeping the Disparate Impact Rule intact hangs in the balance, Texas Housers has been…
Announcing the 2019 Texas Houser Awards on November 5th
On November 5, the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service will host our annual Texas Houser Awards. This year, our…
Episode 18: The Power of Renters
More than one-third of households in Texas are renters, and in Austin, more than half of residents rent their homes.…
Podcast Episode 16: The House of Cards America Built
When the U.S. government designed postwar housing policy and subsidized massive developments and suburbs, it created a strong middle class…
Here is how the Seven Principles for Disaster Recovery could be a roadmap to repair following Hurricane Dorian
The harsh toll Hurricane Dorian took on the Bahamas, Southeastern United States, and Atlantic Canada is a cruel, but unfortunately…
Houston’s I-45 expansion deeply damages life for low-income residents. Upholding the Four Rights could help them.
In 2015, partners of Texas Housers developed the Four Rights as a framework to discuss and practice fair housing. Those…
San Antonio Could Pilot the State’s First Right to Counsel Initiative To Help Renters Facing Eviction
San Antonio could be the first city in Texas to pilot a Right to Counsel initiative to guarantee renters in…
HUD is giving Fort Worth an Envision Center when its at-risk neighborhoods need a clear vision for their fraught future
“Housing assistance should be more than just putting a roof over someone’s head,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson told a Fort…
Harris County steps into a future of equitable recovery by passing the #HarrisThrives Resolution
Two years ago this week, Hurricane Harvey made landfall over Southeast Texas. The storm’s strength didn’t just punish with its heavy…
Texas Housers explores Houston’s segregation of Project Based Section 8 Housing in a new report
The politics of who is in charge may shift through the years, but our commitment as a nation to providing…
The city of Houston says it wants to end impediments to Fair Housing using the Four Rights. It should lead by example.
Fair housing was signed into law to root out segregation and individual acts of discrimination. But it means so much…
Report details the cumulative trauma of family violence and natural disaster during Hurricane Harvey
In a natural disaster, it is vital to act as quickly as possible to help those most vulnerable first. Some…
The U.S. Senate wants to establish a permanent resource to rebuild with the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act Of 2019
Disaster recovery at this moment does not work for all who need it. Structural issues like drainage or organizational issues such…
Texas Housers and Texas Appleseed urge HUD to follow established law in joint comment on mixed-status families
HUD’s proposal to disrupt the lives of mixed immigration status families is both contradictory to meaning of the law intended…
The expansion of Interstate 45 is harming low-income communities in Houston. Here’s what can be done to fix that.
For the past several months, Texas Housers and our partners have been tracking the public concern around the expansion of…
Podcast Episode 12: Juneteenth and Texas Freedom Colonies
Juneteenth is soon approaching in a few days, and in honor of the holiday, we spoke about the preservation of…
Podcast episode 11: The roundabout way we subsidize affordable housing
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit program is helping to produce most of the new affordable housing in our country.…
Disaster survivors often faced double the financial toll when rebuilding their homes. A new law now ensures that won’t happen.
Following a natural disaster, a survivor’s road back to normal can be long and difficult. If they are lucky enough…
Poor living conditions in a Galveston subsidized apartment complex add to the island’s affordable housing crisis
In episode 9 of our podcast, A Little Louder, we talk about how a subsidized apartment complex in Galveston is…
Community Development Block Grants 101
(Photo from Austin’s Blackland Community Development Corporation Facebook page) The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is one of the…
Texas Housers Accepts NLIHC’s 2019 Resident Organizing Award For 12 Moms Initiative
On March 28, Texas Housers was given the honor of accepting the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Resident Organizing Award…
If this small fix to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program pushed further, it could reshape affordable housing
Building affordable housing can be a long journey with approval needed from many groups and individuals along the way. Unfortunately,…