April 21, 2013
0 Comments
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes. Get involved and join today
Read more
June 11, 2011
Comments Off
The Texas Tenant Advisor developed by Texas Low Income Housing Information Service and Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid attorney Robert Doggett helps tenants know their rights under Texas law so they can resolve disputes with their landlords. The site includes videos, forms you can use to resolve you problem with your landlord, legal statutes, and […]
Read more
June 11, 2011
Comments Off
The Texas Housing Counselor is a website of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service. It is an interactive search tool which automatically estimates the your rent for subsidized housing programs in Texas and is a resource for exploring housing options in the city you choose. It is important to remember that a property or […]
Read more
June 18, 2013 0 Comments
Race continues to be a barrier to housing for people of color in the US with African-Americans encountering the greatest rate of discriminatory practices. Another study finds that progress for African-American families has not significantly improved since 1965. For a pdf version of the full stories, plus contextual articles in social, environmental and legal areas, […]
Read more
June 11, 2013 0 Comments
The housing industry’s spike in sales is largely fueled by speculating corporations with idyll bucks to invest. The typical deal is for an underpriced house that is held as rental property until it’s sold for a significant profit. The practice calls into question the “growth” in the housing market and underscores that average homebuyers are […]
Read more
June 4, 2013 0 Comments
The Federal Reserve has released a new report that asserts the nation has yet to recover from the recession. While those in the top income bracket have rebounded, the average citizen has yet to regain the buying power to spike the general economy. The collapse of the housing industry still bares the blunt of the […]
Read more
May 31, 2013 0 Comments
Last week, Austin’s NPR-affliate KUT News explored the nuts and bolts of Austin affordable housing in a four-part series – “Under One Roof: Affordable Housing 101.“ The series asked the question “just how does affordable housing work in Austin?”Here are links to the individual stories: Part One: The Users. Affordable housing wait lists can last […]
Read more
May 28, 2013 0 Comments
As the ink dries on a $25 billion settlement with the government last year, big banks resume their sleazy mortgage practices. The state of New York is preparing the suit that includes abuses in other states that signed-on to the settlement. For a pdf version of the full stories, plus contextual articles in social, environmental […]
Read more
May 25, 2013 0 Comments
Representative Sylvester Turner’s office says Representative Turner, the leading advocate for the System Benefit Fund, has agreed to an amendment to House Bill 7 to eliminate the Texas System Benefit Fund on September 1, 2016. This eliminates the only source of energy assistance provided by the State of Texas for the poorest Texans, including the […]
Read more
May 25, 2013 0 Comments
The Sierra Club has proposed a far better solution to the Texas Senate’s proposal to spend down and eliminate the $800+ million Texas System Benefit Fund. Here are the key points of the Sierra Club’s plan: On the System Benefit Fund, we prefer the approach taken by the House – create a trust fund going forward, […]
Read more
May 24, 2013 1 Comment
A deal is reportedly in the works over the Texas System Benefit Fund that is better than what was originally proposed by the Texas Senate. In the three years however the deal will leave poor Texas households at the mercy of high cost unregulated electric utilities. I have written about the issue earlier. The original […]
Read more
May 21, 2013 0 Comments
A new Brookings Institute study says America’s poor are increasingly pushed out into the suburbs where the costs of living and transportation is higher. Austin is second in the nation in suburban poverty growth. For a pdf version of the full stories, plus contextual articles in social, environmental and legal areas, contact Bo McCarver at […]
Read more
May 21, 2013 0 Comments
The Spring 2013 issue of Tenant Talk, a publication of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, contains a moving essay by Gloria More about organizing her fellow tenants of the Eastwood Terrace, a property in Nacogdoches, Texas: The view outside my window painted a dismal scene. I closed my eyes and tried to picture the […]
Read more
May 17, 2013 0 Comments
The Texas Senate passed out the TDHCA Sunset bill this afternoon. The bill voted out adopted the recommendations of the Sunset Commission, removing endorsement letters from legislators from the statutory scoring of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit award process. These letters have previously been discussed at Texas Housers. A floor amendment re-instituting the letters […]
Read more
May 14, 2013 0 Comments
The “American Dream” of homeownership is challenged by a new study that links high rates of unemployment to high rates of homeownership. Individual efforts to cling to homes limit mobility to jobs. Meanwhile, another investigation notes that as the housing market improves, so does worker mobility. For a pdf version of the full stories, plus […]
Read more
May 10, 2013 0 Comments
TXLIHIS Co-Director John Henneberger testified this week at the Intergovernmental Relations Committee hearing on the TDHCA Sunset bill. His testimony appears below, and focuses on the role of legislative letters in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program: The entire discussion of the bill is available via Senate Real Audio starting at 1:16:42, and goes […]
Read more
May 7, 2013 0 Comments
While the housing industry slowly recovers, New York’ attorney general is suing big banks for continuing to scam borrowers. The action alleges that the banks still practice abusive mortgage lending in the wake of a $25 billion settlement last year. Meanwhile, the energy boom in Texas’ Permian Basin has increased the demand for housing that […]
Read more
May 3, 2013 0 Comments
Last Week, HB 611, (Rep Guillen) died on the floor of the Texas house on a record vote. The bill was often characterized as a rollback of the model subdivision rules, development rules designed to prevent the creation of further colonias. Below is a highlight video clip of six minutes of the forty-five minute debate […]
Read more
April 30, 2013 0 Comments
Racial inequities in US housing ownership continue as a new report shows minorities pay more for their homes and are almost 30 percent less likely to own a home than Caucasians. Maps show that special segregation is still the norm in most cities. For a pdf version of the full stories, contact Bo McCarver at […]
Read more
April 29, 2013 0 Comments
I wrote last week about the ill-conceived amendment the Texas House of Representatives tacked onto the TDHCA Sunset bill. The first part of this amendment removed the Sunset Commission recommendations and gave state representatives virtual veto power over Low Income Housing Tax Credit applications. Today I want to focus on the other part of that […]
Read more
April 26, 2013 3 Comments
An eleventh hour amendment to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) Sunset bill by a strong opponent of housing tax credits gives each member of the Texas Legislature unprecedented power to choose the winning tax credit application in their district or to effectively block affordable housing tax credit developments altogether. The amendment removes from […]
Read more
April 25, 2013 1 Comment
The Texas House yesterday debated HB3361, the bill to continue the functions of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs after its review by the Sunset Commission. The main topic of conversation was scoring legislative support support letters for Low Income Housing Tax Credit developments. For those just joining this conversation, we’ve discussed those letters […]
Read more
April 25, 2013 0 Comments
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino submitted legislation today to ban discrimination against people who pay their rent with government assistance, a day after the U.S. Department of Justice threatened to haul the county into court over the issue. In a letter to the county’s Board of Legislators, Astorino wrote, “In light of all of the […]
Read more
April 25, 2013 0 Comments
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Wednesday announced a series of restructuring and systemic changes within its Office of Multifamily Housing Programs and the Office of Field Policy and Management (FPM). The changes, which include consolidating Multifamily hubs nationwide and closing 16 smaller offices, affect approximately 900 of the Departments’ 9,000 employees. HUD […]
Read more
April 23, 2013 2 Comments
“Check the budget. We already spend a lot of money of weatherization.” This quote came from Senator Williams successfully arguing on the floor of the Texas Senate yesterday to defeat an amendment to use some of the $811 million System Benefit Fund for weathering the homes of poor Texans. We did what the Senator suggested. […]
Read more
April 23, 2013 0 Comments
It appears that the rebuilding of the 569 public housing in Galveston demolished in the wake of Hurricane Ike may be back on track. Sources tell me that the Galveston Housing Authority voted today 4-1 to accept the requirements of the Texas General Land Office concerning the rebuilding of public housing. Last week the Galveston City […]
Read more
April 23, 2013 0 Comments
As the housing recovery stalls, big banks move in to grab the bargains, leaving low-income buyers languishing. Market analysts speculate that banks may be caught in another housing bubble of their own making. In Galveston, the city council finally throws in the towel and moves forward to replace public housing units lost in Hurricane Ike […]
Read more
April 22, 2013 1 Comment
Without bothering to put on masks, a majority of Texas Senators voted this afternoon to rob $811 million from a fund collected to help the poor pay their utility bills. There is not any other way to characterize today’s action. The Senate voted to return the funds in the State account collected from Texas utility […]
Read more
April 21, 2013 0 Comments
Bill Minutaglio, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, the author of “City on Fire: The Explosion That Devastated a Texas Town and Ignited a Historic Legal Battle,” has a column in today’s NYT that Texas leaders should read and heed. Minutaglio examines the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, TX […]
Read more
April 19, 2013 1 Comment
Shelly Batten and Tina Colunga drove up from Galveston yesterday to testify on HB 835. HB 835, by Representative Eiland, (and it’s aptly numbered companion, SB 835, by Senator Lucio,) say that homes provided through a government disaster recovery program are not considered newly valued improvements if they replace or repair a substandard home. This addresses […]
Read more
April 18, 2013 1 Comment
Everyone is horrified at the loss of life and destruction last night from the explosion of a fertilizer plant in the town of West. One of the many things we must resolve in light of this disaster is to make sure that steps are taken to prevent a recurrence elsewhere. It was clearly a mistake […]
Read more
April 17, 2013 0 Comments
This morning CFED unveiled two sets of materials covering Manufactured Housing in South Texas: a Data Snapshot, which illustrates the role of manufactured homes in the South Texas affordable housing market, who lives in them and how they serve the housing needs of their owners, and a Policy Snapshot, which describes how the Texas and […]
Read more
April 16, 2013 0 Comments
Houston planners are proposing to develop more work force housing for middle income households inside the inner loop. The mayor is quoted as saying the city has enough housing for its rich and poor but needs more homes for middle-income workers to live closer to their jobs. For a pdf version of the full stories, […]
Read more
We’re proud to be a Texas partner of the National Low Income Housing Coalition
Learn how to resolve a dispute with your landlord
Find subsidized housing with our custom search tool – Texas Housing Counselor
