newbloghead2

Excuse the inconvenience, we are merging our blog and website

Please excuse the the empty pages and strange links on our blog site texashousiners.net. We are merging our several web sites with our blog. The process will (hopefully) be complete in a few weeks and will make information and news about affordable housing and community development in Texas easier to find. We welcome your suggestions [...]

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dispute_resolve

Learn how to resolve a dispute with your landlord

www.texastenant.org The Texas Tenant Advisor developed by Texas Low Income Housing Information Service and Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid attorney Robert Doggett is designed to help tenants know their rights under Texas law so they can resolve disputes with their landlords. The site includes helpful resources such as videos, forms you can use to resolve [...]

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good_apartments

Find subsidized housing with our custom search tool – Texas Housing Counselor

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 [...]

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twitter

TexasHousers on Twitter

For those given to chronically wasting time or suffering from insane levels of boredom, follow the goings-on of Texas Housers via Twitter. No promises that I’m going to keep this up for a long time.  

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 1-24-2012

A settlement between big banks and the government is expected this week. Homeowners screwed by robo-signing and other sleazy scams may get $1,800 checks while up to a million with bloated mortgages may see the principles reduced. A new study based on a Louisville sample suggests that the high foreclosure rates in black neighborhoods is [...]

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money_house

Dallas fumbles in the absence of a housing policy

Housing segregation is a problem most Texas communities struggle with. Crippled by a lack of political courage and leadership no city seems to struggle more than Dallas, often with serious consequences. The Dallas Morning News (DMN) ran a front page story Sunday about a dispute between the backers of two proposed Low Income Housing Tax [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 1-17-2012

Foreclosure rates dropped by a third last year — but not because of better financial times for homeowners.  Fearing  federal  penalties for  sloppy or  fraudulent paperwork, bankers  slowed-down  their  lending processes, that  formerly included “robo signing.” In League City, the council narrowly  faced-down NIMBY opposition to a n affordable complex for seniors. For a pdf [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 1-10-2012

Anticipating a done-deal, government prosecutors are expanding an offer to banks to drop charges in exchange for billions of dollars to adjust mortgages for “under-water” homeowners. Meanwhile, Galveston shakers and movers find a new way to delay construction of public housing destroyed by Hurricane Ike three years ago. For a pdf version of the full [...]

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DMN_Logo

DMN editorial says paper will push housing in 2012

An editorial in today’s Dallas Morning News says the paper will editorially push two housing issues on the editorial pages in 2012. A monitoring of nonprofits to replace dilapidated housing and revitalize neighborhoods. A look into tax-credit housing — how the process goes awry and the impact that such housing concentration has in southern Dallas. [...]

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Loren

Loren Berlin, former TxLIHIS staffer, named housing reporter at Huffington Post

Loren Berlin, who formerly worked at TxLIHIS on the Housing Texas campaign, tells us she has been named the housing market reporter at the Huffington Post. You can follow Lauren’s reporting on Twitter. Those who remember Loren will recall that she is very gifted. We look forward to her future contributions toward improving housing policy [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation, 1-3-2012

As desperate families jostle for position in lines for public housing, Congress slashes federal housing programs by $3.8 billion. The housing shortage pre-dated the mortgage crisis and now the nationwide housing shortage is estimated at 3.5 million homes. For a pdf. version of the full articles, plus contextual stories on social, environmental and legal issues, [...]

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bo

Housing News Clips – December 2011

Tuesday Report, Dec. 27, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Corruption in the nation’s banking industry is profoundly illuminated by the current mortgage debacle that came more in focus as one of the themes of Occupy protesters. As the Occupy Movement retreats in the harsh winter, new information reveals that federal [...]

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bo

Housing News Clips – November 2011

Tuesday Report, Nov. 1, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service As retribution for sleazy mortgage deals, federal housing authorities contemplate forcing major banks to cut mortgage debts by up to $25 billion. Critics say the deal does not bring justice for the abuses by the mortgage industry. For a pdf version [...]

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bo

Housing News Clips – October 2011

Tuesday Report, Oct. 4, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service The federal program to rescue “underwater” homeowners is shutting down after a terrible start and a system so mired in red tape that few qualified. The program had helped about half of the 30,000 targeted homeowners. For the few who qualify, [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 9-20-2011

Mortgage defaults soar as bankers bear down on marginal borrowers. The 33 percent spike comes as Bank of America loses a court battle with a vice president who was fired for reporting fraudulent loan practices. For a pdf version of the full stories, plus contextual articles in social, environmental and legal areas, contact Bo McCarver [...]

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wheelchair_tent

Couple lives in tent waiting for Ike-damaged home’s repair | khou.com Houston

Just when you think you have seen the worst government can do to Hurricane Ike victims along comes this story. This is funded with the $3.1 billion State administered disaster recovery program. Is no one monitoring how local recipients of the funds treat the people who are being “assisted” under the program? (Watch the video) [...]

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blue-tarp

Fewer than 500 Texas homes repaired in three years since Hurricane Ike

Official figures from the State of Texas show that fewer than 500 homes have been repaired or rebuilt under the State of Texas Hurricane Ike/Dolly disaster recovery program as of this week, the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Ike. A minimum of $1.7 billion in available federal funds provided to the state are aside for housing [...]

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parker

On 3rd anniversary 200 tell Houston City Council reforms are needed in Hurricane Ike recovery program

The following testimony was presented before the Houston City Council on the third anniversary of Hurricane Ike, September 13, 2011.

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top_rally

Protesters say city slow to repair Ike-damaged houses – Houston Chronicle

Bearing photos of homes that still have blue tarps on the roofs, more than 100 protesters held a rally at City Hall on the third anniversary of Hurricane Ike on Tuesday and pleaded with the City Council to accelerate its repair program. “I’m tired of the city telling me to be patient,” said Elvis Malveaux at [...]

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first_house

Senior’s city-built home lacked insulation – Houston Chronicle

After months of delay in getting its housing repair program under way, Houston’s housing department was eager last month to show off the first batch of new homes built to replace those damaged by Hurricane Ike. But one of the homes wasn’t quite finished when it was turned over to the homeowner. The contractor neglected to [...]

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publicnewsservice

Three Years After Ike, Many Still Await Assistance | Public News Service

AUSTIN, Texas – Today marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Ike, and many low-income Texans, particularly in the Houston area, have yet to recover from its devastation. Hundreds of affected residents plan to converge on City Hall today, carrying symbolic blue tarps and photos of unrepaired homes, charging that the city has neglected them while [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 9-13-2011

Economists present mixed views of the housing industry with some saying it will get worse before it gets better and others claim the inverse. Meanwhile, record-low interest rates do nothing to increase sales because thresholds for qualifying for loans are beyond the reach of most would-be homeowners. For a pdf version of the full stories, [...]

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Ike_video

September 13, 2011 is the three year anniversary of Hurricane Ike

Please take a few moments to consider the plight of the tens of thousands of elderly and disabled Texans who are still waiting for help to repair their homes. Some tell their stories in this video produced a year ago for TxLIHIS by former staffer Melissa Cha. The people in the video are still waiting [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 8-30-2011

In order to increase the value of occupied houses, banks are now financing the demolition of some that aren’t. In Cleveland, big lenders will pay for half of the 700 houses schedule for demolition this year with the land going into a local land banking organization. For a pdf version of the full stories, plus [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 8-23-2011

Depressed home sales nationwide signal that the end of the recession is nowhere near. Record low interest rates at 3.75 percent mean little as incomes shrink and living expenses rise. In Texas, the head of TDHCA resigns amid accusations of slow progress in addressing housing losses from Hurricane Ike. Meanwhile, conservatives on Galveston Island continue [...]

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noodling

“Noodlng” and the resignation of Mike Gerber

In demonstration of the indifference of the Texas press to issues affecting the lives of the poor and the sorry state of coverage by the Texas press of state government generally, the Texas Tribune this week ran a story on Mike Gerber’s resignation as director of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, four months [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 8-16-2011

Stale sales in the housing industry continue to spook builders as potential buyers are increasingly squeezed-out by the general economic turndown. Meanwhile, unsold houses are converted to rental units and solvent mortgage holders are refinancing at record-low rates. For a pdf version of the full stories, plus contextual articles in social, environmental and legal areas, [...]

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poor

Houston experiences largest growth of poor population in American metros

Other central cities that saw populations of the poor soar between 2000 and 2007 included Dallas, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Columbus, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, and El Paso. These are the observations of Rolf Pendall, PhD, Director of the Metropolitan Housing & Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute, writing in the blog MetroTrends. The biggest single [...]

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NHTF

Housing coalition responds to House committee vote to repeal National Housing Trust Fund

Earlier I posted the audio of the July 12 House committee hearing on repeal of the National Housing Trust Fund. In the course of the debate before the committee a number of arguments were raised against the National Housing Trust Fund that were strongly disputed by defenders of the trust fund. On Tuesday the National [...]

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Building_permit

Texas border building codes: a mostly meaningless and bizarre law

I have been looking into the powers that border counties have to enforce health and safety standards through requiring building permits and inspections of residential homes. In Subchapter F, of Chapter 233 of the Government Code, the Texas Legislature enacted what mist be one of the most meaningless and bazaar construction requirements to be found [...]

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prejudice

When the overwhelming majority of good people don’t confront prejudice, an entire community suffers

I received a phone call yesterday from Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski about my June 25 blog post, ”The racism of New Berlin is growing in Galveston.” The mayor told me someone contacted him who thought I was accusing everyone in Galveston of being racist. All I could say to the mayor was, “Did the person who called you [...]

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bo

Bo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 8-2-2011

As Congress finally acts, analysts are still pouring over the impacts of the debt-ceiling package — but a general belt-tightening is assured. The compromise includes spending cuts of $900 billion over 10 years on discretionary items — primarily education, housing and transportation programs. In Galveston, conservatives still fight the rebuilding of public housing on the [...]

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JH_drawing

The budget cap deal means the opportunity to address poverty is slipping away

On the debt ceiling deal I’m no expert, but like everyone I have a personal opinion. My focus is on the economic condition of the poor in this country and improving the quality and affordability of their homes and neighborhoods, I fear that domestic discretionary spending cuts mandated in the debt ceiling deal will disproportionately [...]

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Pew_chart

Recession and falling housing values dramatically widening wealth gap between whites, Hispanics and blacks

Most everyone is aware of the long-time “wealth gap” between whites vs. Hispanics and blacks. A new Pew Research Center study demonstrates there has been an alarming increase in this gap since the onset of the Great Recession. The median wealth of white households is now 20 times that of black households and 18 times [...]

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