The Haven for Hope homeless facility in San Antonio, Texas is one of three recipients of the HUD Secretary’s 2011 Housing and Community Design Award for excellence in residential housing design. The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects, selected the Haven for Hope homeless facility [...]
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Hurricane Disaster Spending–an opportunity to repair homes *and* create jobs in affected communities
May 27, 2011
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Texas Low Income Housing Information Service is working with residents in Galveston, Houston and the Valley to make sure that under-employed and unemployed Texans get as much work as possible from the Hurricane Recovery dollars. Section 3 says that when HUD dollars are spent on housing or infrastructure projects and low-income people in the affected [...]
Read more Houston Town Hall on Disaster Single Family Home Repair
May 26, 2011
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On Saturday, May 21, 2011, Texas Organizing Project (TOP) along with other supporting organizations spearheaded a record attendance Town Hall meeting to address the City of Houston’s lack of attention to Single Family Home Repair due to Hurricane Ike. Over 300 attendants packed Jerusalem Baptist Church to receive information about the ongoing slow progress of [...]
Read more 60 minutes on Texas Farmworkers
May 25, 2011
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Last weekend 60 minutes ran a story on migrant youth farm labor. The story features a Texas family staying in a TDHCA-licensed migrant labor housing facility. In the short online-only ‘extra’ clip below, 60 minutes reporter Byron Pitts is astounded at the fact the family is charged a damage deposit to stay at the facility. [...]
Read more Houston SRO Development wins Urban Land Institute Award
May 25, 2011
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New Hope Housing at Bray’s Crossing, Houston, Texas was one of ten winners of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Awards for Excellence: The Americas competition. The winners of the awards competition, widely recognized as the land use industry’s most prestigious recognition program, were announced last week in Phoenix at the 2011 ULI Real Estate Summit [...]
Read more Thoughts on the Washington Post Investigation of the HOME Program
May 19, 2011
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5/20 update: HUD has posted a more detailed response to the WP article that includes an re-analysis of the entire data set. That response is available here: “Setting the Record Straight: What the Washington Post Got Wrong About the HOME Program” The Washington Post article last weekend that discussed the Beaumont HOME development failure is [...]
Read more TDHCA releases map of total affordable rental units by county
May 18, 2011
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The Housing Resource Center at TDHCA has just released an interactive google map of the affordable rental units funded by the department. An image of the map appears below–double clicking on the embeded image will take you the interactive map itself.
Read moreWashington Post Focuses on Beaumont Housing Failure
May 16, 2011
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Saturday’s Washington Post ran a story on a failed HOME development in Beaumont: BEAUMONT, Tex. — At the dusty intersection of Texas and Elm streets, two partially completed houses sit empty on an unkempt corner lot across from 86-year-old Gardine Grogan’s dilapidated home. Three years ago, a local developer walked off the job without finishing [...]
Read moreHUD Approves Phase I of Texas Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing
May 13, 2011
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One of the conditions of the TxLIHIS – Texas Appleseed – State of Texas Fair Housing settlement on hurricane recovery is that the state would update its Analysis of Impediments (AI) to Fair Housing. (See our post Introduction to an “Analysis of Impediments” for discussion of what an AI is). Today, HUD approved the first phase [...]
Read more John Henneberger Testimony at TDHCA Board Meeting on Disaster Recovery Housing Programs
May 9, 2011
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John Henneberger, a Co-Director of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, spoke at the May 5, 2011 board meeting of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) regarding the status of and proposed changes to the Hurricane Ike Disaster Recovery Housing Programs in Houston and Galveston. Youtube videos of selections of his [...]
Read moreValley Tops List of Housing Cost Growth
May 6, 2011
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This week the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released “Out Of Reach,” a side-by-side comparison of wages and rents in the United States. The report includes a tool to generate local summaries of the status of renters. Below are NLIHC’s summaries of the State of Texas and Starr County, as well as a map [...]
Read moreAudit Report Roundup–Weatherization Program, TCAP, NSP
May 2, 2011
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The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) audit committee meets next week, and their meeting packet is up at the TDHCA website. A couple of things caught my eye: An Internal Audit repor of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), including that part of the program funded under the Recovery Act was released. In [...]
Read moreTDHCA Executive Director Michael Gerber Stepping Down
April 20, 2011
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Quorum Report is reporting that TDHCA Executive Director Michael Gerber will be stepping down from the helm of TDHCA in mid-June. Mr. Gerber joined the department in 2006, coming from Governor Rick Perry’s Office of Budget, Planning, and Policy. 5/2 update: Per the meeting packet for the TDHCA Board Meeting, TDHCA General Counsel Tim Irvine [...]
Read moreFirst Time Homebuyer Programs at TDHCA and TSAHC
April 19, 2011
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Both the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation operate First Time Homebuyer Programs using funds from the state bond ceiling. TxLIHIS has recently completed an analysis of these programs. We found some differences in the programs, although the differences are not large and may reflect the different focuses [...]
Read moreTexas NSP Program Audit
April 15, 2011
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The Internal Auditing Division of the Texas Department of Community Affairs released a report last week on TDHCA’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The topline finding: “The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs’ (Department) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) is not operating as efficiently as it could and may not fully comply with all program rules and [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 4-12-2011
April 12, 2011
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Tuesday Report, April 12, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service “Things are going to get worse before they get better” seems to be the mantra of economists following the US housing industry. The Obama Administration’s efforts to jump-start new mortgages and salvage troubled ones have largely failed. Republicans are now calling [...]
Read moreJohn Henneberger Testimony at Urban Affairs on TDHCA Sunset
April 11, 2011
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TxLIHIS co-director John Henneberger testified last week at the Texas House Urban Affairs Hearing on TDHCA’s Sunset process. His testimony, as well as the introduction of the TDHCA Sunset Bill by Rep. Harper Brown, is available below via Youtube. (John Henneberger’s testimony starts at 7.24 of the clip, following Rep. Harper Brown’s statements.)
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 4-8-2011
April 8, 2011
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Tuesday Report, April 5, 2010 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service New mortgage rules that make banks accountable for lending risks are shaking up the housing industry. The heady days of bundling bad mortgages and selling them off to naïve companies are gone. Meanwhile, lending companies are having to accept short sales [...]
Read moreIt’s NIMBY Time…Again
April 6, 2011
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“We realize that not all residents of an affordable housing development will, by default, be criminals. However, we are also not ignorant to the fact, which is supported by real statistics, that many criminals (especially violent criminals, drug-related criminals, and sex-offenders) tend to come from a lower socio-economic class. […] We feel that in this [...]
Read moreTDHCA Sunset Bill up in House Urban Affairs Wed
April 4, 2011
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The Sunset Bills for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation will be up in the Texas House Committee for Urban Affairs on Wednesday at 10.30 AM or on adjournment. The video should be available here: http://www.house.state.tx.us/video-audio/. Our previous coverage of the Sunset Process can be found [...]
Read moreWeekend Budget Fun
April 3, 2011
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The Texas House met over the weekend to consider HB 1, the budget. Thursday, we noted a couple of amendments worth watching. Following up on them, it appears: Rep. Alvarado’s amendment (page 323 of pre-filed bill package) was pulled by the author prior to reaching the floor. The intent of this amendment lives on in [...]
Read moreHouse Budget Amendments Affect TDHCA Programs
March 31, 2011
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It’s Budget Time! The House takes up HB 1, the FY 12-13 Budget tomorrow. All of the amendments are up for public viewing at the Texas Tribune, but these three are of special interest to folks following the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs: An Article III Amendment by Rep. Torres (p. 170) zeros [...]
Read moreChecking in on the Weatherization Assistance Program
March 21, 2011
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There were two recent updates, one federal and one local, on the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) program as funded under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Federally, the Congressional House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations recently had a hearing on the status of Recovery Act Spending by the Department of Energy (DOE). [...]
Read moreGovernor Announces New TDHCA, TSAHC Board Members
March 18, 2011
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This month Gov. Rick Perry has made two new housing related appointments. He appointed J.Paul Oxer of Sugar Land to the board of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and Jerry Romero of El Paso to the board of the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation. From the Gov’s press release regarding Mr. Oxer’s [...]
Read moreBo McCarver’s weekly news compilation, 3-15-2011
March 15, 2011
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Tuesday Report, March 15, 2011 Special to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service The horror stories of screwed homeowners continue to surface as Congress prepares to stifle any relief programs. The cuts are now extended to veteran’s with a proposal to cut housing vouchers by 10,000 annually. In Fort Bend, NIMBYs protest an affordable [...]
Read moreJohn Henneberger Testimony at Senate Finance on TDHCA Budget
March 9, 2011
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TxLIHIS co-director John Henneberger testified last week at the Senate Finance Hearing on TDHCA’s budget and Disaster Recovery funding in Texas. His testimony is available below via Youtube.
Read moreSubsidized Housing In Texas Often Fails to Provide Outreach to the Persons with Disabilities
March 4, 2011
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The Compliance Division of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs cites Failure to provide an Affirmative Marketing Plan as the top non-compliance item it identified in its 600 on-site inspections in 2010. An article in its annual Newsletter states “Developments are typically cited for this finding because they 1) fail to affirmatively market [...]
Read moreHouse Appropriations Axes Homeless Funds and Majority of Housing Trust Fund
February 22, 2011
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This morning the Texas House Appropriations Committee (HAC) met and adopted the LBB recommendations for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) budget. They made a small change related to the language for IT purchases, but otherwise adopted the LBB recommendations in full. The LBB budget recommendation for TDHCA represents only 29% of [...]
Read moreStudy of State’s Use of LIHTC Boost
February 21, 2011
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This month the “Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits” included an article examining how different states utilize their ability to offer some Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) developments a 30% “boost” in funding. (article link here). As regular readers know, the LIHTC program is a federal program that supports the production of affordable multifamily housing. [...]
Read moreObserver Article on Disaster Recovery
February 18, 2011
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“We had an expensive and painful learning process under Rita, and we didn’t apply those lessons to Ike and Dolly,” says Henneberger. The Texas Observer is running a cover story which outlines the frustrating state of affairs of Disaster Recovery in Texas. The article, which quotes Texas Low Income Housing Co-Director John Henneberger, can [...]
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