When President Bush signed the big housing bill Wednesday he ushered in a number of changes to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. While most of the attention has been focused on the two year, temporary increase in tax credits there two other far more important changes buried in the bill. The first provision [...]
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Archive | July, 2008
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/30/2008
July 30, 2008
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My friend and fellow houser Bo McCarver shares with the Texas housers blog the housing related stories from his weekly compilation of print media stories he calls “The Tuesday Report”. Bo’s report is posted here each Wednesday. If you want a pdf file of the articles that includes social, environmental and other contextual news stories, [...]
Read moreLt. Governor Dewhurst pledges to “double or triple” Texas Housing Trust Fund
July 29, 2008
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Speaking before the annual Texas Housing Conference Monday, Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst pledged that the Texas Legislature would double or triple the Texas Housing Trust Fund. Last session the Lt. Governor, at the urging of Senator Eddie Lucio and members of Housing Texas, led the successful effort to secure an added $5.8 million per [...]
Read moreQuestions, answers, concerns about the new $4 billion foreclosed homes program in Texas
July 28, 2008
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One of the subprograms of greatest controversy within the major housing legislation passed by Congress on Saturday (HR 3221) is Section 2301, Emergency Assistance For The Redevelopment of Abandoned and Foreclosed Homes. Initially, Present Bush threatened to veto the housing bill over this section. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, “The Senate bill would provide [...]
Read moreNational Housing Trust Fund bill passed by Congress!
July 27, 2008
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On Saturday the Senate concurred in House amendments to HR 3221, “The Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008”. The bill contains provisions enacting the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF). President Bush has indicated he will sign the bill into law. The bill establishes a housing trust fund at the federal level with a [...]
Read moreAustin housers win funding victory
July 26, 2008
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Austin housers won a major victory Thursday when the Austin City Council reversed city staff recommendations and rejected deep cuts in the city’s commitment to affordable housing. We began sounding the alarm about the staff proposed funding cuts on June 19 and reported on meetings between housers and top city staff on July 8. Thursday [...]
Read moreUnderstanding public attitudes toward public housing
July 25, 2008
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Amidst a lot of anger and outrage directed at a proposed development in Northeast Austin proposing to provide transitional housing for the homeless there have been the usual comments about the development being like “public housing” and then a recounting of the “failures of public housing”. For example consider this entry on the Austin-American Statesman’s [...]
Read moreThe toll from Hurricane Dolly is not in and we’re not prepared for a low income housing disaster
July 24, 2008
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At this hour we still don’t have a full account of damage from Hurricane Dolly which hit Brownsville and the Texas Rio Grande Valley head on. Regardless of the final damage tally Dolly should be a wake up call and a warning. We are not prepared to deal with rebuilding housing of the poor after [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 7/23/2008
July 23, 2008
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My friend and fellow houser Bo McCarver has agreed to share with the Texas housers blog the housing related stories from his weekly compilation of print media stories he calls “The Tuesday Report”. I will post Bo’s report here each Wednesday. If you want a pdf file of the articles that includes social, environmental and [...]
Read moreLow Income Housing Tax Credit program in Dallas frozen and challanged in lawsuit
July 22, 2008
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The Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in Dallas has been effectively shut down for several years and is now the subject of an important civil rights lawsuit. For those who have not followed the travails of the affordable housing program in Dallas let’s review where things stand today. Anyone who has read a newspaper [...]
Read moreHouston’s fair housing failure segregates Katrina evacuees in SW slum apartments
July 21, 2008
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Today’s dangerous housing problems in the Southwestern part of Houston have been greatly exacerbated by the actions of Houston city government in the settlement of large numbers of Katrina evacuees in the area. But the problem does not lie solely in past actions. The City of Houston, in violation of provisions of the 1968 Fair [...]
Read moreTwo proposed tools to get aggressive with slum landlords
July 20, 2008
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For the past two days I have been exploring in this blog ways to deal with the massive problem of substandard apartments that has emerged in Houston. The challenge is to get the land(slum)lords to repair and maintain their property. The current approach taken by the City of Houston, whereby the city issues citations that [...]
Read moreHouston Mayor Bill White tells Houstonians not to worry about substandard apartments
July 19, 2008
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I was proud to present Houston Mayor Bill White an award in 2007 on behalf of the National Low Income Housing Coalition for his work on behalf of the survivors in the early days following Hurricane Katrina. I am sorry to say the mayor’s response to the death of two children from a collapsed staircase [...]
Read moreIt is too late for two children but now is the time for Houston to act on slum apartments
July 18, 2008
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It happened again last night. More kids were hurt, this time killed, in the slum apartments the city of Houston tolerates in the Southwest section of the city. It should not have happened. The City of Houston has long known about the deplorable living conditions in this area. The Houston Chronicle has splashed it over [...]
Read moreVISTAs make good things happen in housing
July 17, 2008
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We have a new VISTA volunteer at the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service and I am once again reminded how VISTAs make good things happen for the poor, especially in housing. Ryan is a summer VISTA who was assigned to us through a VISTA program operated by United Cerebral Palsy of Texas. His job [...]
Read moreRecalling the prehistory of public housing in Texas
July 16, 2008
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Watch our interview with Professor Fox on the origins of public housing in Texas. A number of years ago Karen Paup and I set out to document the development of public housing in Texas. This material and more that I will present in future entries are from that project. Few people can explain why public [...]
Read moreJust how crazy can the WSJ editorial page be? Check out the attack on the housing trust fund.
July 15, 2008
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On July 8 the Wall Street Journal editorial page let loose on the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund in an editorial that raises the bar for disingenuous rants. The editorial blasted the trust fund claiming, “while it sounds innocuous, in practice it amounts to a new tax to create a permanent subsidy for state governments [...]
Read moreWhen housing advocates sell out bad things happen
July 14, 2008
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I’ve been complaining about it for years, Now that the New York Times has said it maybe folks will take stock. The housing advocacy community sold out to Fannie Mae. They stopped doing their jobs to hold this crucial housing institution accountable for meeting its obligations to provide for the housing needs of low and [...]
Read moreTop 10 reasons to be a Texas low income housing optimist
July 13, 2008
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I have put on my rose colored glasses and come up with the top ten reasons to be an optimist about low income housing in Texas. Watch the video blog to hear all the details or read the bare bones list below. 1. A National Housing Trust Fund may be established soon. 2. Chances have [...]
Read moreThe effect of the Fannie/Freddie meltdown on affordable housing
July 12, 2008
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares are falling like a rock. The Bush Administration is said to be working on a plan to place the two “quasi-governmental government sponsored enterprises” (GSEs) into a public conservatorship. What does this mean for affordable housing? If the government explicitly guarantees the obligations of the GSEs it will add [...]
Read moreThe present day saga on one Texas non-border colonia
July 11, 2008
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First Texas had colonias along the border with Mexico. Now “non-border colonias” are an emerging issue. A colonia, in Texas terms, is a subdivision, either legally or illegally subdivided, located in an unincorporated part of a county. To be considered a colonia, the area generally must lack one or more essential public service: drainage, adequate roads, [...]
Read moreNew designs for low income post-disaster housing in Texas
July 10, 2008
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Here is a little background on the Texas Grow Home project to bring you up-to-date. The Genesis of this project was in a Housing Texas meeting a few years back when everyone agreed that there should be an affordable single family home design competition. In the wake of Hurricane Rita we modified this original concept [...]
Read moreThe Texas mortgage industry needs to take a hard look in the mirror
July 9, 2008
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After reading Richard Bitner’s new book, Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider’s Tale of Geed, Fraud and Ignorance I regret ever saying anything good about subprime lending. I used to parrot the party line that it was not subprime lending per se we object to, it was predatory lending. According Bitner I was dead [...]
Read moreAustin housers voice concerns over proposed city housing cuts
July 8, 2008
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Leaders in Austin’s affordable housing community met July 1 the City of Austin’s new Chief of Staff, Anthony Snipes to voice objections to housing budget cuts we reported on earlier that have been proposed by the City’s Neighborhood Housing Department. Frank Fernandez (CPH); Cathy Echols (Livable City); Ruby Roa (CDC); Algie Williams (CDC); Michael Willard [...]
Read moreKatrina evacuee’s Habitat success story greeted by cheers and jeers
July 7, 2008
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Reading the story in the Houston Chronicle on July 4 about Andrea Lee who moved to Houston after Hurricane Katrina and built a home with help from Habitat for Humanity is inspiring. But scroll down the page on the Houston Chronicle’s web site to get a dose of the deep seated of racism and reactionary [...]
Read moreThe voice of consumers is missing in judging subsidized housing
July 6, 2008
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Low income tenants are seldom consulted about the quality of housing that the government builds for them. I have long thought this to be a serious flaw in affordable housing. Without the active involvement of consumers how can we expect the housing to be designed to meet their needs? Without asking the tenants, how can [...]
Read moreNonprofit FHA downpayment assistance scheme nets 19% Texas defaults
July 5, 2008
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I’m sorry if this makes me sound like an affordable housing hertic but this bothers me. NPR reports there are nonprofits out there that are serving as middle men (for a fee) between home sellers who want to pay a buyer’s three percent downpayment on an FHA loan and buyers who can’t come up with [...]
Read moreUnraveling the mystery of 500 unused Dallas Section 8 vouchers
July 4, 2008
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The Dallas Morning News ran a story by Kim Horner on June 23 about 500 Section 8 vouchers that have gone unused. Since the Dallas Housing Authority (DHA) has more than 8,000 families on the waiting list and closed the waiting list for new applications four years ago I wondered what on earth was going [...]
Read moreEl Cenizo community leader Lupe De Leon fought for property rights, housing, better living conditions
July 3, 2008
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On Saturday, June 28, 2008, Lupe De Leon died at his home in El Cenizo TX. Mr. De Leon was El Cenizo’s second mayor and a leader in laying the foundation for many of the community’s improvements. El Cenizo is one of the better known Texas border colonias. It is home for about 800 mostly [...]
Read moreThe best (and worst) performing Texas public housing authorities according to HUD
July 2, 2008
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In the course of updating our databases of all the multifamily subsidized housing in Texas this week I manually extracted the public housing agency management scores from the HUD website for each Texas PHA. I thought some folks might be interested in the scores that HUD has assigned. [A note of caution: you have to [...]
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