Amidst a lot of anger and outrage directed at a proposed development in Northeast Austin proposing to provide transitional housing…
The toll from Hurricane Dolly is not in and we’re not prepared for a low income housing disaster
At this hour we still don’t have a full account of damage from Hurricane Dolly which hit Brownsville and the…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/23/2008
My friend and fellow houser Bo McCarver has agreed to share with the Texas housers blog the housing related stories…
Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in Dallas frozen and challanged in lawsuit
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in Dallas has been effectively shut down for several years and is now…
Houston’s fair housing failure segregates Katrina evacuees in SW slum apartments
Today’s dangerous housing problems in the Southwestern part of Houston have been greatly exacerbated by the actions of Houston city…
Two proposed tools to get aggressive with slum landlords
For the past two days I have been exploring in this blog ways to deal with the massive problem of…
Houston Mayor Bill White tells Houstonians not to worry about substandard apartments
I was proud to present Houston Mayor Bill White an award in 2007 on behalf of the National Low Income…
It is too late for two children but now is the time for Houston to act on slum apartments
It happened again last night. More kids were hurt, this time killed, in the slum apartments the city of Houston…
VISTAs make good things happen in housing
We have a new VISTA volunteer at the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service and I am once again reminded…
Recalling the prehistory of public housing in Texas
Watch our interview with Professor Fox on the origins of public housing in Texas. A number of years ago Karen…
Just how crazy can the WSJ editorial page be? Check out the attack on the housing trust fund.
On July 8 the Wall Street Journal editorial page let loose on the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund in an…
When housing advocates sell out bad things happen
I’ve been complaining about it for years, Now that the New York Times has said it maybe folks will take…
Top 10 reasons to be a Texas low income housing optimist
I have put on my rose colored glasses and come up with the top ten reasons to be an optimist…
The effect of the Fannie/Freddie meltdown on affordable housing
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares are falling like a rock. The Bush Administration is said to be working on…
The present day saga on one Texas non-border colonia
First Texas had colonias along the border with Mexico. Now “non-border colonias” are an emerging issue. A colonia, in Texas terms,…
New designs for low income post-disaster housing in Texas
Here is a little background on the Texas Grow Home project to bring you up-to-date. The Genesis of this project…
The Texas mortgage industry needs to take a hard look in the mirror
After reading Richard Bitner’s new book, Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider’s Tale of Geed, Fraud and Ignorance I…
Austin housers voice concerns over proposed city housing cuts
Leaders in Austin’s affordable housing community met July 1 the City of Austin’s new Chief of Staff, Anthony Snipes to…
Katrina evacuee’s Habitat success story greeted by cheers and jeers
Reading the story in the Houston Chronicle on July 4 about Andrea Lee who moved to Houston after Hurricane Katrina…
The voice of consumers is missing in judging subsidized housing
Low income tenants are seldom consulted about the quality of housing that the government builds for them. I have long…
Nonprofit FHA downpayment assistance scheme nets 19% Texas defaults
I’m sorry if this makes me sound like an affordable housing hertic but this bothers me. NPR reports there are…
Unraveling the mystery of 500 unused Dallas Section 8 vouchers
The Dallas Morning News ran a story by Kim Horner on June 23 about 500 Section 8 vouchers that have…
El Cenizo community leader Lupe De Leon fought for property rights, housing, better living conditions
On Saturday, June 28, 2008, Lupe De Leon died at his home in El Cenizo TX. Mr. De Leon was…
The best (and worst) performing Texas public housing authorities according to HUD
In the course of updating our databases of all the multifamily subsidized housing in Texas this week I manually extracted…
Part 2: Housing segregation in Austin – a community blind to the problem
Watch my video blog or read the text below. Austin is a city of intense racial and economic segregation. Despite…
Part 1: Housing segregation in Austin – a product of government policy
Watch the slide show of racial and economic housing segregation and the current housing policy decisions of the City of…
Housers need to shun “over-opinionization” and appreciate the big picture
One of the occupational diseases of working in affordable housing is overspecialization leading to “over-opinionization”. This malady infects housing practitioners…
Sunset Commission votes to reauthorize TSAHC for six years
As I noted in a posting earlier this week the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation (TSAHC) is up for review…
State of the Nation’s Housing – it’s getting worse
I know I have been mostly blogging about problems lately. All of this negative housing news can be depressing. I…
Everything is bigger in Texas – except our housing trust fund
Looking over the latest report from Mary Brook’s Housing Trust Fund Project at the Center for Community Change makes me…