Inequality is stark in the Rio Grande Valley, but for many, its causes remain hidden. In order to overcome the consequences…
Category: Housing
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…
HUD issues guidelines for new fair housing regulation
On the last day of 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the final version of its…
Best of the Texas Housers blog 2015
2015 was quite a year for Texas Housers – our staff grew, more people read our website than ever before and…
Eight years after hurricanes, Texas disaster recovery efforts are $1 billion behind
The Texas Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee (IGR) has begun to investigate the failures of the state’s disaster recovery process, finding that…
CDC Spotlight: A holistic approach to housing in Brownsville
Community development corporations (CDCs) are the lifeblood of the low income housing movement, building quality affordable homes and preserving diversity…
Fate of housing programs uncertain as Congress approaches budget deadline
The complicated year-end Congressional budget process got messier the week before Thanksgiving, as the controversy over refugee resettlement became embroiled with…
Report: No Good Choice for Houston’s Housing Choice Voucher Holders
On November 7, the Houston Chronicle ran a front-page story called ‘The Divide: Hunting for a home,’ exploring the challenges facing…
The 2015 Texas Houser Awards
On November 4, we recognized four outstanding individuals with Texas Houser Awards: Assistant Secretary Gustavo Velasquez and Sara Pratt and from HUD’s…
Texas House Speaker instructs Urban Affairs Committee to study housing and fair housing issues
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus has instructed the House Urban Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Carol Alvarado of Houston, to…