With the first round of bailout billions having rendered no progress in stemming foreclosures, the Obama Administration ponders where to best apply additional measures. Meanwhile, taxpayers are not pleased that the bank magnates have awarded themselves undeserved bonuses and have invested the stimulus money into ventures that do little to address job creation and retention [...]
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Archive | January, 2009
February 3 meeting to discuss Texas housing legislation
January 27, 2009
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The 81st session of the Texas Legislature has begun in the midst of an escalating housing crisis in Texas. This crisis that has condemned tens of thousands of Texans to living under unimaginable circumstances: where foreclosure or eviction looms as a daily threat, and where families must make the choice between food and rent. Substandard, [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 1/20/2009
January 26, 2009
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A year ago, the business pages of Texas’ daily newspapers uniformly ran stories saying the national downturn in housing was not affecting local markets and that their particular economies were immune. Now, only cities with large military bases can boast of a stable housing market. A new report asserts that nationwide, Black and Latino communities [...]
Read moreFlorida Housing Trust Fund raided to balance state budget
January 16, 2009
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The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Florida Legislature raided the Florida Housing Trust Fund to cope with the state’s budget shortage. The Florida HTF is the largest and most successful state housing trust fund in the nation. The article is worth reading. Also worth reading is the profile of House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney [...]
Read moreNational housing advocates urge changes to economic stimulus bill
January 15, 2009
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The National Low Income Housing Coalition is urging changes to the draft economic stimulus bill. Support Needed for National Housing Trust Fund, Vouchers, and Emergency Shelter Grants Take Action! Ask Your Representative To Sign “Dear Colleague Letter” Representative Gwen Moore (D-WI) is circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter asking other members of the House to join [...]
Read moreDallas public housing authority hires new director
January 15, 2009
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The Dallas Morning News reports the Dallas Housing Authority’s board of commissioners on Thursday hired a new president and chief executive officer MaryAnn Russ, currently an executive at the Houston Housing Authority.
Read moreMajor funding for low income housing proposed in economic stimulus bill
January 15, 2009
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In the next two weeks, Congress will be considering the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009. Today, House Appropriations Chairman Obey released the details of the economic stimulus bill. The bill contains major new housing initiatives. By my calculation the bill contains $25.6 billion in low income housing and related funding. Below are the [...]
Read moreBad decisions on hurricane rebuilding will force cuts in critical Texas services
January 15, 2009
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The implications of screwing up the Hurricane Ike recovery effort by pursuing the course outlined in the Texas draft recovery plan grew a lot bleaker this week. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs released a $77.1 billion revenue estimate that was $9.1 billion less than the $86.2 billion estimate of 2007. To avoid cutting schools, health care [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 1/14/2009
January 14, 2009
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The rental housing market begins to feel the recession as vacancy rates increase and rents drop. Analysts cite unemployment as the major catalyst, a speculation that seems supported by the increasing number of homeless persons. Newspapers focus on the business side of the story while the social consequences go largely unreported. Texas continues to dither [...]
Read moreFix the Texas Hurricane Ike and Dolly rebuilding plan
January 7, 2009
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We have posted our comments to the State of Texas regrading the State’s proposed hurricane rebuilding plan. We offer fifteen recommendations to the State of Texas for allocating funds and designing and implementing programs to utilize the $1.3 billion in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to assist in the housing rebuilding efforts for Hurricanes [...]
Read moreTexas will be forced to ration hurricane home repair grants
January 7, 2009
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Texas should allocate the limited disaster funds so that they take care of the housing needs of Hurricane Ike/Dolly survivors as the State’s top priority and relegate funding for government programs to a lower priority. Families’ recovery should come first and government second. If even after making housing the State’s top funding priority, not enough [...]
Read moreWatch “The Old Man and the Storm” on-line
January 6, 2009
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In case you missed the broadcast, I urge you to watch the Frontline film, The Old Man and the Storm on-line. The story of the impact on real people of the incredibly frustrating efforts to rebuild their homes in the wake of the hurricane is told beautifully. This is the story of thousands of our [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 1/6/2009
January 6, 2009
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Among the foreclosures and general decline in the housing market, this week we witness a huge drop in occupancy of rental housing in Dallas. The writers suggest it is related to loss of jobs but there is no suggestion as to where residents of 6,000 units have gone or in which employment sectors they worked. [...]
Read moreLet’s resolve to win a serious housing trust fund for Texas
January 5, 2009
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TxLIHIS is ringing in the New Year with a long list of resolutions – from ensuring that low-income hurricane survivors have a shot at sustainable housing recovery, to protecting the homes of lower income families from foreclosure. Chief among our resolutions is finally securing a dedicated revenue source for the Housing Trust Fund- Texas’ only [...]
Read morePBS film documements role of race, class and politics in rebuilding hurricane damaged homes
January 2, 2009
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Watch the trailer for the PBS Frontline film, “The Old Man and the Storm.” Several of President Bush’s top aides publicly proclaimed last week that failures to adequately respond to the rescue and rebuilding challenges posed by Hurricane Katrina did more than anything else to sink the Bush Presidency. Today Texas is struggling to put [...]
Read more87 percent of Texas communities exceed US poverty rate in new survey
January 1, 2009
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My New Year’s resolution is to put doing something about the high levels of Texas poverty on our state’s agenda for 2009. Here is an assessment of where Texas communities stand in terms of poverty based on the recently released American Communities Survey. There are 61 Texas communities represented in the Census survey of more [...]
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