In a series of blogs, Texas Housers is observing the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Harvey by examining the responses from…
Author: John Henneberger
I started my commitment to housing justice for people and communities with low incomes in 1975 in Austin's Clarksville community. These years of working side-by-side with dedicated community leaders to find solutions to housing and community development challenges have taught me some things and I’m learning new things every day.A Little Louder Video Buzz Session #3: Treasury must clarify plan for recapturing Emergency Rent Assistance funds
The US Treasury Department oversees state and local government expenditures of federal Emergency Rent Assistance funds. Texas Housers has discovered…
Texas cities and counties may lose up to $103M in emergency rent relief if they fail to act before March 31
Texas Housers issues an urgent plea to government officials in certain Texas cities and counties to act immediately before they…
A Little Louder Video Buzz Session 1: Texas eviction crisis update
Texas Housers’ co-director John Henneberger is joined by senior researcher Ben Martin in a new vlog to talk about the…
HUD stopping State of Texas’s misuse of federal disaster mitigation funds is not about paperwork or politics, it’s about saying no to discrimination
There’s something important missing from the recent news reports on HUD’s decision to withhold $1.95 billion of federal disaster mitigation…
February 21 Update: Governor Abbott and the Texas Legislature continue to fail to act to help Texas freeze survivors
Less than 48 hours after Texas Housers posted a blog entry challenging Texas government officials to take 5 critical actions…
Governor Abbott and Texas Legislators: you got us in this mess, here is what you must do to fix it
A monumental failure of Texas state government is responsible for a statewide power outage causing devastation of our economy and…
Three things President-elect Biden needs to do Jan 20 to keep Americans housed
Everyone needs a home. Never more so than during this pandemic. Past government efforts to keep Americans who can’t pay…
Podcast #33: A temporary eviction moratorium and $1.9B for rent relief is coming to Texas
Congress passed and President Trump signed a pandemic relief bill granting a month-long extension of the current federal eviction moratorium…
Breaking news: TX Supreme Court issues emergency order on CDC eviction moratorium to protect Texas tenants
By a vote of 6-2 today the Texas Supreme Court has issued an emergency order setting out much needed clearer…
Texans are losing their homes because judges are not consistently enforcing CDC eviction moratorium order
A September 1 order by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prohibits landlords from evicting tenants from…
In alarming move toward mass displacement, Texas AG Ken Paxton says local governments cannot impose eviction moratoriums
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion today that local governmental entities operating under local emergency declarations cannot delay,…
Calls on Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to allow a city council vote on temporary eviction moratorium
The Houston Chronicle reports that Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is refusing to put a moratorium on evictions before the Houston…
AFFH is the housing equivalent of cell phone videos in the George Floyd murder — the essential tool to expose racism
I am a third generation Texan who has spent most of my life investigating the role of government in racial…
Substandard colonias are an enduring result of housing segregation that we can fix
The challenge of substandard colonias are not unique to the border or even our era, but are actually an age…
Lawsuit by four Texas renters says State of Texas, HUD discriminate on race in Hurricane Harvey aid
Four South Texas renters filed a civil rights lawsuit last week in federal court alleging HUD and the State of…
RAPIDO is now a proven solution for disaster home rebuilding that is rapid, efficient, and just – let’s use it!
On June 12, 2019 at an open house for the final RAPIDO test home in Houston, Texas Housers co-director John…
What “equity” in Hurricane Harvey drainage recovery means
The Houston Bayou Initiative invited me to present my views on what equity would look like in the allocation of…
The 8 things I’ve learned in my 40+ years in housing and community development
I’m often asked to summarize what I have learned in my 40+ years of activism in the field of housing…
Secretary Carson asks anybody to offer examples of housing discrimination HUD has ignored and pledges to be on it “like white on rice.” Here you go Mr. Secretary
HUD Secretary Ben Carson assured members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee three weeks ago that he and HUD…
The goal of disaster recovery should be more than returning to normal
I was honored to give the keynote at the 43rd Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop on July 9 in…
Job announcement: Texas Houser Planner Analyst / Research Associate in Houston
Texas Housers has a immediate job opening for a Planner Analyst / Research Associate in our Houston office. DESCRIPTION This policy…
Lenwood Johnson, passionate, disruptive warrior for justice, dies
Lenwood Johnson, legendary Houston displacement opponent, community preservationist, good neighbor, public housing activist and a Texas Houser board member for…
NYT editorial on federal government’s failure to prevent states and cities from using federal dollars to perpetuate segregation
An editorial appears in Sunday’s New York Times on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.…
Sweeping new fair and affordable housing proposed by three Austin City Council members
Austin City Council members Garza, Renteria, and Casar have announced a sweeping progressive fair and affordable housing agenda. Here is…
Clarksville’s story teaches lessons about Jim Crow, government racism and gentrification
Clarksville is a fading west Austin freedman’s community that can teach valuable lessons of the community struggle against the three…
A friendly city where the problems of race and equity go unacknowledged and unresolved
Lubbock proudly bills itself as “The Friendliest City in America.” The people of Lubbock are indeed friendly. Yet, like most…
President’s budget proposes massive cuts for Texas housing and community development
Douglas Rice has posted a blog that estimates the impact President Trump’s budget on affordable housing in each state. In…
A big first step, yet questions remain as HUD announces $5 billion in federal disaster funds for Texas
(Editor’s note — This statement has been altered to incorporate the voice of our partner, Texas Appleseed) Meanwhile the White…
We demand HUD address City of Houston and Housing Authority violations of civil rights laws
The Texas Low Income Housing Information Service (TxLIHIS) has told the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that it…