As the housing market continues to sputter, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac falter under government conservatorship. The corporations have been…
Category: Local issues
Local issues consist of housing topics faced by city and county governments that are of interest to local organizers and community groups.
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 9/1/2009
The sputtering economy braces for another wave of mortgage defaults as loans carrying variable interest rates are pushed higher. Banks…
Texas gets 3,111 Section 8 vouchers for hurricane survivors
Now here is some really good news for Texas, and especially for the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 8/25/2009
This story is repeated so often its headline is no longer news: more US homeowners find themselves “underwater” as the…
Dallas Housing Authority misfires in war on crime
The Dallas Housing Authority’s board of directors (DHA) adopted a new policy this week to require public housing tenants to…
Bo McCarver’s housing news compilation – 8/18/2009
Across the nation, struggling homeowners who are behind in paying taxes on their homes are now faced with huge fees…
Who is to blame in the Dallas tax credit corruption scandal?
In response to a recent blog post I received the following comment from an anonymous reader… Offering a bribe to…
When the price of community support got too high, housing tax credit developer turned to FBI
It’s like a pornographic movie… the Dallas housing tax credit trial… everyone gets screwed. In today’s trial testimony the Dallas Morning…
Government witness in Dallas corruption trial testifies he paid for community support for tax credit deal
Low income housing tax credit developer and star government witness in the Dallas public corruption trial Bill Fisher admitted in…
Bo McCarver’s housing news compilation — 8/11/2009
Years after Hurricanes Rita and Ike, FEMA has been ordered by a federal judge to publish rules for homeowners to…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 8/4/2009
Like trying to push a rope, the Obama Administration is having little luck getting banks to address troubled mortgages. The…
$55,000 was the price for community support for affordable housing in Dallas
A document introduced into evidence today in the Dallas public corruption trial surrounding the Texas Low Income Housing Tax Credit…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/28/2009
The supply/demand principle of free markets appears to be ignored in Texas: although foreclosure rates continue to climb, Texas homebuilders…
Tax credit apartments for extremely low income families focus in Dallas public corruption trial
A request to get the Dallas City Council to waive requirements that a portion of the apartments built by Low…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/21/2009
It’s just getting harder and harder for business editors to spin rosy real estate articles but creativity abounds — we’re…
Government housing programs can and do help the poorest families in Texas
I blogged last week about the need for housing programs to recognize the housing needs of families well below 30…
FBI recordings show tax credit developer and indicted local officials discussed redirecting housing bonds away from the poor
If you want to be discouraged about the way affordable housing has done in Texas all you need to do…
A culture of greed tarnishes the Texas Low Income Housing Tax Credit program
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in Texas is sometimes more about the developers making money building housing and…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/14/2009
Slowly the nation realizes that banks are not in the business of financing mortgages but rather the business of making…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/7/2009
The word-on-the-street is that “things are going to get worse before they get better:” a massive wave of foreclosures looms…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 6/30/2009
Like a caboose on a wayward train, renters feel the brunt of the ongoing housing debacle. Their plights are largely…
Brownsville CDC director discusses recent changes in border low-income housing and colonias
Homebuyers buying new houses through a CDC in Brownsville, Texas have an average income of $19,000. Low-income border families, who…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 6/23/2009
A surge of mortgage defaults is forecasted as the housing industry slowly sinks further into the general recession. The Texas…
Fort Worth housing fund crisis shows need for more public oversight
Once again the lack of oversight of a city housing department leads to waste and abuse and puts the federal…
Texas LIHTC corruption case should embarrass us into taking action
I don’t know who, if anyone, is guilty in the Dallas Low Income Housing Tax Credit public corruption case that…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 6/16/2009
While market analysts search vainly for glimmers of hope in the housing industry, foreclosure rates continue to soar. Efforts to…
Galveston Long Term Recovery Plan should focus on what it takes to allow survivors to return home
Lots of hard work has gone into the production of the Galveston Long Term Recovery Plan. The citizens behind this…
Rental housing most vulnerable in Hurricane Ike shortchanged in reconstruction plan
Renters and rental housing were particularly hard hit by Hurricane Ike. Yet renters and rental housing needs are being shortchanged…
The “Ike Dike” is no excuse for diverting money from rebuilding homes
The June 4 issue of the Wall Street Journal reports that Houston leaders are pushing a plan to protect against…
How Ike and future hurricanes impact Black households disproportionately
African-American households reside in areas most vulnerable to hurricanes in the greater Galveston Bay area. Census tracts in which 60%…