This piece originally ran on Shelterforce Magazine’s Rooflines blog. The Inclusive Communities project has now filed a motion and brief…
Category: Housing
Video: Visualizing Houston’s housing segregation
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched a fair housing investigation after the City…
Lack of drainage in Rio Grande Valley colonias creates breeding ground for Zika virus
This piece originally ran as a column in the McAllen newspaper, The Monitor, on September 12, 2016. Pictured above: Lot flooding after a regular…
First-ever colonia disaster recovery conference prepares residents for emergencies
Natural disasters hit low income households the hardest, especially in the colonias of the Rio Grande Valley. Learning to prepare…
Houston co-director talks fair housing and comprehensive reinvestment on public radio
Fair housing is all about providing choice – the right to choose a living situation free from discrimination. But when…
Houston flooding plan fails to provide needed investment or protect civil rights
On August 18, 2016, I provided testimony at a public hearing over the City of Houston’s draft Action Plan for Community…
How state legislators can improve fair housing compliance in Texas
Texas Housers fair housing planner Charlie Duncan and University of Texas professor Heather Way were among the speakers at a…
Hands-on training for colonia leaders emphasizes role of government in solving problems
Cris Rocha, a community organizer with La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), welcomed the group and Norma Aldape, a LUPE member and…
Video: Community discussion on history of inequality and injustice in the Rio Grande Valley
Inequality is stark in the Rio Grande Valley, but for many, its causes remain hidden. In order to overcome the consequences…
City of Houston, [bc]Workshop, TOP deserve the national recognition for engaging community and consumers to design better homes
Congratulations to our friends and partners at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP [bc], Texas Organizing Project (TOP) and to the City of Houston Housing and…
State interference threatens Galveston’s promise of equitable disaster recovery
Eight years ago, Galveston was devastated by Hurricane Ike. Four years ago, at the urging of the Texas General Land…
Join us for the first Plática discussion about inequality in the Rio Grande Valley on July 6
Inequality in the Rio Grande Valley is more extreme than most anywhere in the United States. It is seen in…
A builder of The Beloved Community passes – who’s gonna fill her shoes?
Photo: Charles Smith, Katherine Poole, Councilwoman Sally Shipman in the midst of fight to save Blackland neighborhood from University of Texas expansion (ca.…
Radio interview with our Houston co-director Chrishelle Palay on the consequences of NIMBYism
Texas Housers Houston co-director Chrishelle Palay appeared on Houston Matters, the public affairs radio show from Houston Public Media, to discuss how…
Out of Reach 2016: Report finds no affordable housing in Texas for minimum wage workers
No matter where in Texas you live, if you earn the minimum wage, you cannot afford your rent. That’s the harsh…
Years of organizing lead to vital stormwater drainage project for Rio Grande Valley colonias
Inequality is most starkly manifested in the differences between rich and poor neighborhoods. And nowhere is inequality greater than in the…
More of the same: Houston risks fair housing progress, adds to segregation
There have been some recent signs that Houston is slowly accepting the need to practice fair housing and treat all…
Advocates: Let’s get the National Housing Trust Fund details right from the beginning
This piece originally ran on Shelterforce Magazine’s Rooflines blog. It’s rare when a major new national housing program comes along.…
Colonia youth take charge to protect neighbors from contamination
As discussed in our staff conversation last week, there has been a shameful lack of government oversight around the toxic contamination of…
Making the most of the National Housing Trust Fund in Texas
The National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) is the first dedicated source of funding for extremely low income households in decades. Its…
#ReentryWeek: Sunnyside residents have a vision for fair chances at housing
The U.S. Justice Department has declared this week “National Reentry Week” to shed light on the challenges faced by formerly…
Report: Texas childhood poverty largely divided by place and race
African-American and Hispanic children in Texas are around three times likelier to live in poverty than white children. That’s one of…
After Oregon vote, Texas becomes only state with inclusionary zoning ban
And then there was one: The Oregon Senate has approved a housing bill that repeals the state’s ban on inclusionary…
Houstonians should be angry about public housing – because of segregation
Note: A version of this post ran in the Gray Matters section of the Houston Chronicle on March 30. Our piece on…
Texas Observer features colonia organizing effort to prevent flooding
A new in-depth story on the Texas Observer website details the organizing efforts of colonia residents in the Rio Grande Valley to…
What’s behind the opposition to public housing in a high opportunity area in Houston?
(Update: After receiving a great deal of feedback on this post – see the comment section below – we posted…
Texas Observer cover story highlights how state legislators block affordable housing
In August we released our 2015 Texas Housing Tax Credit Report, an in-depth examination of how last year’s state process of…
Street light installation finally begins as colonia residents celebrate victory
Above: Residents of Colonia Goolie Meadows enjoy the illumination provided by their new street lights. Last week marked another milestone in…
EPA hears testimony on civil rights and environmental injustice in Houston
On January 12, Texas Housers Houston co-director Chrishelle Palay testified (pictured above) at an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) public listening…
Youth organizing group advances environmental justice project in the Rio Grande Valley
Above: Josué (far left) and the leaders of the South Tower Power campaign at the City of Alamo Wastewater Treatment…