It sounds increasingly like open warfare has broken out between Texas officials and FEMA over the Hurricane Ike recovery efforts.…
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.My hopes for the Obama administration’s housing policy
I fancy myself a political realist. A person who spends their life working on social justice issues in Texans either…
Louisiana extends its sympathies to Texas regarding FEMA
Our neighbors from Louisiana have offered some sympathy to Texas in the problems we have been experiencing with FEMA. Here…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 11/5/2008
The consequences of an unregulated housing finance industry continue to hammer the American middle class: soon a quarter of the…
Confusion and delays plague temporary housing programs for Hurricane Ike survivors
I have been spending some time this week trying to understand the way the FEMA temporary housing assistance programs have…
New report profiles loan delinquencies and foreclosures in Texas cities
A collaboration between LISC and the Urban Institute has produced a data set with “foreclosure needs scores” within Community Development…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 10/29/2008
Administration of the $700 billion bailout has already taken new and questionable turns. While the “Main Street versus Wall Street”…
We endorse Texas Attorney General Abbott’s call for mortgage deferment legislation to help struggling homeowners
The Texas Low Income Housing Information Service (TxLIHIS) applauds and endorses Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s proposal today for a…
Brooke Boston, state housing deputy director, is stepping down
Brooke Boston, who has served as Deputy Director for Programs at the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for…
A public housing advocate senses tide turning against Galvestion public housing rebuilding
Lenwood Johnson, Texas’ foremost public housing advocate, sent me an email this afternoon about the prospects for rebuilding public housing…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compliation – 10/22/2008
This week we learned how Freddie Mac administrators thwarted a bill that would have provided the oversight to possibly avoid…
Ike housing damages said to be $8.5 billion in Harris County; more than 1/2 of Houston apartments damaged
Two stories in today’s Houston Chronicle point to the staggering cost of housing damages. We are still waiting for the…
It should be about more than just helping the middle class
Let’s remember there once was a time when a US President enjoyed popularity for rallying our country to end poverty.
Nearly 306,000 Ike damaged properties in Texas have been reviewed by FEMA inspectors
Five weeks after Hurricane Ike made landfall, state and federal financial assistance to help Texas homeowners, renters and businesses recover…
Homeowners rebuilding from Hurricane Ike have basically no consumer protection in Texas
Houston Mayor Bill White threw in the towel this week, ending his modest effort to provide rudimentary consumer protections to…
Southeast Texas elected leaders demand temporary FEMA trailers despite health risks
Some local elected officials are downright furious with FEMA because FEMA will not put travel trailers on the property of…
Gov. Perry picks Eckels, Newby to lead Hurricane Ike recovery and coordination effort
Governor Perry has designated a former Harris County Judge and the Governor’s current chief of staff to “co-lead an effort…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compliation – 10/15/2008
For a pdf version of the full stories and other contextual articles in social, economic and political areas, contact Bo…
City Council to vote (finally) on East Austin Homestead Preservation District
On Thursday October 16th the Austin City Council will take up the issue of creating the Homestead Preservation District. This…
Texas farmworker housing problems impact state’s agriculture industry
Motivation Education & Training, Inc (MET) the leading leading advocate and social service provider for Texas farmworkers. It was founded…
Analysis of HUD report on low scoring subsidized housing in Texas
A total of 107 or 9.4 percent of HUD assisted housing apartment developments in Texas earned a very low score…
National Housing Trust Fund becomes subject of political distortions
Housing for the poor has been caught up in the partisan distortions of the political mudslinging season. This speaks poorly…
Please read this woman’s story and tell me how to address her housing problem
One of the things that frustrates me the most is that I get a dozen or so emails each week…
My recommendations for dealing with the low-income homeownership problems in Texas
I was invited to testify today before the Texas Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee on the status of state programs to…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compliation – 10/7/2008
An autopsy of Fannie Mae is offered this week by the New York Times, which asserts conflicting pressures to back…
Another voice against the attack on the Community Reinvestment Act
On October 3 Bill Moyers interviewed Emma Coleman Jordan about the mortgage meltdown and the latest cries that the Community…
The big lie about the role of affordable lending goals in the collapse of Fannie Mae
The Big Lie: Fannie Mae collapsed because of Congressional affordable housing goals and this, in turn, was the cause of…
LBJ speech recalls struggle to bring low-income housing to Austin
In 1968, at the end of his political career, with barely one month left in his term as president, LBJ…
LBJ’s struggle to get Austin to accept public housing offers lessons for today
Seventy years ago here, in Austin Texas, Lyndon Johnson a young, first-term congressman took up the cause of housing the…
Bill O’Reilly vs Barney Frank shoutdown over Fannie Mae
This video perfectly illustrates the deterioration in the quality of the policy discussion in the country today. Issues surrounding the…