Forrest Wilder’s Texas Observer Blog about high end housing construction on Galveston Island is well worth reading. There should be a lot of thought devoted to the extent to which public relief funds are used to support redevelopment of expensive sea-side housing on Galveston Island in areas that lie only a few feet above sea [...]
Read more
Archive | September, 2008
Hurricane Ike emergency housing status
September 26, 2008
Comments Off
Some of the elements of the Hurricane Ike housing relief package have become know this week. Here is a review of what I know along with what I have heard about the two main emergency housing programs. SHELTERS I have not been keeping up very well with the shelter situation. The population was rapidly declining [...]
Read moreA US homebuilder makes a major contribution to getting Mexicans to hate us
September 24, 2008
2 Comments
U.S. builder hopes Mexicans will want homes made from shipping containers Company targeting poor factory workers in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Homes are 320 square feet, around $8,000 with kitchen, bath, sleeping area Home builder wants factories to offer homes as part of workers’ benefits. From CNN.
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly housing news compliation – 9/23/2008
September 23, 2008
Comments Off
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 moreThe foreclosure resistant low income mortgage loan
September 21, 2008
Comments Off
The $700 billion bailout of Wall Street brought about by the subprime/ predatory mortgage debacle points out that there needs to be a better, safer and cheaper alternative mortgage for lower income families buying a home. Such a loan needs to be affordable and needs to be able to be adjusted based on the borrower’s [...]
Read moreFEMA rejects Mayor White’s request to allow Houston to begin immediate emergency housing repairs
September 20, 2008
Comments Off
Speaking about the need to take quick action to weatherproof houses damaged by Hurricane Ike, I earlier recommended a concerned effort to immediately begin a program to put permanent roofs back on homes instead of relying on blue plastic tarps. The experience in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita was that the tarps don’t hold up [...]
Read moreLessons from Kartina and Rita about rebuilding permanent housing for low income hurricane survivors
September 18, 2008
Comments Off
We learned valuable lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita about providing post-disaster housing assistance to low income families. This is part of continuing discussion about these lessons os that they can be considered as we develop our response to Hurricane Ike over the coming days. In a September 13 blog post I begin by discussing [...]
Read moreHow to judge the success of Hurricane Ike housing relief? Count the blue roofs in six months.
September 17, 2008
1 Comment
They are called blue roofs. The roofs are blue because FEMA pays contractors to stretch blue plastic tarps over the damaged roofs. No blue roof usually means that the roof has been repaired and most likely the house is livable. So if six months from now you can drive through Harris, Galveston and Orange Counties [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly housing news compliation – 9/16/2008
September 16, 2008
Comments Off
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 moreA New Orleans obituary has lessons for Galveston
September 15, 2008
Comments Off
They have their hands full right now, but someday before the plans for rebuilding are set the city leaders in Galveston need to read the critique of the rebuilding effort in New Orleans in Sunday’s paper by Nicolai Ouroussoff, the architecture critic for The New York Times. The critique is brilliant and rings true. It [...]
Read moreOur ten point plan for rehousing low income Hurricane Ike survivors
September 14, 2008
Comments Off
There are many critical housing needs facing Hurricane Ike survivors of all incomes. Our focus is on the area of housing for low-income families. This is our ten point plan to rehouse low income Hurricane Ike survivors. We learned a lot about how low-income families fare in the wake of natural disaster through the Hurricane [...]
Read moreApply the lessens of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita to the Ike relief efforts
September 13, 2008
2 Comments
We learned a lot of valuable lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita about providing post-disaster housing assistance to low income families. I will discuss how these lessons should be applied to our response to Hurricane Ike over the coming days. I begin today by recounting the lessons in four areas of immediate concern: A. Evacuation [...]
Read moreNew management of GSEs says housing tax credits will not be dumped
September 13, 2008
Comments Off
Earlier I expressed concerns about the portfolios of Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If the new government managers of the GSEs decided to dump tax credits it could have a disastrous effect on the ability of developers to sell future credits to build additional low income rental [...]
Read moreWe could have been better prepared for Hurricane Ike
September 12, 2008
Comments Off
At this hour the Houston-Galveston area is bracing for a forecasted direct hit from Hurricane Ike. Once again the impact of the storm will fall disproportionately on low-income and especially low-income elderly homeowners. Nothing has been done in the three years since Hurricanes Rita and Katrina to address the factors that make these families the [...]
Read moreRevitalizing nuisance properties to be explored at Dallas meeting
September 11, 2008
Comments Off
I have discussed the problem of getting cities to take action on abandoned and derelict properties in low income neighborhoods. Senator Royce West’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee is working on an initiative to address this problem. It is thus timely that a conference of the topic is coming up September 20 in Dallas. Revitalizing Nuisance Properties [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly housing news compliation – 9/10/2008
September 10, 2008
Comments Off
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 moreTexas should prioritize energy efficiency in low income housing development
September 9, 2008
Comments Off
Utility costs are a large and growing problem for low income families. We need to explore the cost effectiveness of building major energy efficiency technologies and solar in low income housing in Texas. Traditionally in Texas we have built low income housing with a focus on keeping the construction costs down. Super high efficiency appliances [...]
Read moreAffordable lending is not to blame for the demise of Fannie and Freddie
September 8, 2008
Comments Off
Floyd Norris, writing in Sunday’s New York Times, lays the blame for the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to their attempt to serve two masters, “…the investors who put up capital and a government that wanted to help the housing industry and extend home ownership.” Norris specifically blames the affordable housing goals [...]
Read moreCould a federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prove disasterous for low income rental housing?
September 7, 2008
1 Comment
Who would have thought we would be looking at a federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Because it was never anticipated that this would happen there are a number of potential consequences of the takeover that have not been thought out. Failure to do so may have disastrous consequences for low income rental [...]
Read moreState housing agency board acts fiscally responsibly on LIHTC awards
September 6, 2008
Comments Off
My compliments to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) board of directors who rejected pleas from low income housing tax credit developers for an across the board increase the in amount of public funds the developers receive. The board acted in a fiscally responsible manner to ensure that the public funds were [...]
Read moreCome to our 20th anniversary party October 1
September 4, 2008
Comments Off
You are invited to join the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service and the Johnson family in a celebration of President Johnson’s legacies. ___ An October Party at Fiesta Gardens ___ A Fundraiser for Texas Low Income Housing Information Service Mighty fine food and drink by Threadgill’s Great music by Grupo Fantasma Coupled with gripping [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 9/3/2008
September 3, 2008
Comments Off
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 moreHouston: The Real Texas? I pray not based on these attitudes
September 3, 2008
Comments Off
In the late 1990′s the marketing motto of Houston was “Houston: The Real Texas.” Based on what I have been reading lately I hope that’s wrong. At the risk of seeming like a voyeur of Texas hate speech I’m going to point out the reader comments on Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg’s column titled Has [...]
Read moreWhen the next hurricane hits most low income Texas homeowners will not have any insurance
September 1, 2008
2 Comments
Many people were shocked in the wake of Hurricane Rita at seventy percent of the homeowners (who were overwhelmingly low income) who lost their home or suffered major damage had no homeowners insurance to help them to rebuild. The next time a hurricane strikes the same will be true. This is not a question of [...]
Read more
