Last Week, HB 611, (Rep Guillen) died on the floor of the Texas house on a record vote. The bill was often characterized as a rollback of the model subdivision rules, development rules designed to prevent the creation of further colonias. Below is a highlight video clip of six minutes of the forty-five minute debate […]
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Tag Archives: Colonias
TxLIHIS policy analyst Josué Ramírez supports colonia residents’ search for solutions
April 1, 2013 
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Although only 24 years old, Josué Ramírez has taken on a leading role in working with grassroots community leaders to solve one of our nation’s biggest housing and poverty challenges — the impoverished colonias of the Texas-Mexico border region. Josué is a policy analyst for Texas Low Income Housing Information Service working out of our new […]
Read more Texas border building codes: a mostly meaningless and bizarre law
August 3, 2011 Comments Off
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 […]
Read more Colonia improvements still leave the poor in deplorable housing
July 31, 2011 Comments Off
Colonias in the Rio Grande Valley are home to some of the poorest Texans. Governmental efforts to improve living conditions in colonias has mostly been limited to two programs: providing water, sewer and roads to more than half of the colonias and forcing land developers to adhere to “model subdivision rules.” Model subdivision rules require […]
Read more Colonia Resident Worried About Tropical Storm Don
July 30, 2011 Comments Off
Channel Five in McAllen ran a story tonight on a resident of a colonia in Cameron County who was dreading the approach of Tropical Storm Don. The subject of the story lives in Green Valley Farms (not Green Acres as the story claims). It is a colonia that has attracted our attention of late because […]
Read more USDA offers lame excuses while slashing housing funds for the rural poor
July 18, 2011 1 Comment
US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack either is poorly informed or being disingenuous about cuts the Obama Administration has proposed for rural housing. People living in rural areas are going to suffer big time. I sat down and wrote Secretary Vilsack a letter the other week telling him that his proposed budget cutting the […]
Read more Where Texas border housing and community development issues stand after the legislative session
July 17, 2011 Comments Off
Earlier this week I spoke to the National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders about developments during the last session of the Texas Legislature that impacted colonias. These are my prepared remarks. The situation faced by those of us who work on affordable housing and community development issues along the Texas Mexico border can be […]
Read more TX Tribune story may lead to a misdiagnosis of colonia conditions and health problems
July 10, 2011 Comments Off
The second of a two-part Texas Tribune story on the colonias that ran today on the Tribune’s website and in the New York Times has me worried. Reporter Emily Ramshaw illuminates the terrible health problems faced by colonia residents. Unfortunately, the story also is likely to leave many in the dark. The story does not make […]
Read more CNN says, “Impoverished border town grows from shacks into community” – not exactly
July 9, 2011 Comments Off
Whoever at CNN wrote the headline above does not understand what happened in the Las Lomas colonia. The headline says, “Impoverished border town grows from shacks into community”. The headline should say, “Impoverished border community grows from shacks to a town”. The transformation of Las Lomas took place because it always was a strong community. That community […]
Read more What really impedes progress in Texas colonias?
July 8, 2011 1 Comment
A story in today’s Texas Tribune and the Texas edition of the New York Times presents a sad and confused picture of the problems facing impoverished colonia homeowners. Amid a number of self-congratulatory statements from well-meaning government officials here is one that stands out, ”…being in public service, you have to learn the system, and be patient.” […]
Read more I woke last night to the sound of thunder
June 23, 2011 Comments Off
As other parts of the state literally burn and the Governor calls on Texans to implement a critical part of his disaster response program, prayer for rain, here in the Valley rain clouds are rolling in. As I’ve been writing this post, the lights in my downtown Edinburg office have gone out, interrupting my work. The city streets flood terribly with even ordinary rainstorms like today’s, but colonias have it much worse.
Read moreReview shows some progress in border housing since 1997
May 10, 2010 Comments Off
It will be seventeen years next month since the Border Low Income Housing Coalition was established and proposed a plan to address the substandard living conditions on the Texas side of the Texas- Mexico border. In preparing for a convening of people concerned with the living conditions today along that border, I got out the […]
Read moreBrownsville CDC director discusses recent changes in border low-income housing and colonias
June 26, 2009 Comments Off
Homebuyers buying new houses through a CDC in Brownsville, Texas have an average income of $19,000. Low-income border families, who a decade ago would have bought lots and built homes through their own labor in a colonia, have lately been buying homes from many of the former colonia developers. Lately, these former colonia developers have […]
Read moreWhat would Daniel Boone do? The dilemma of imposing state regulations to improve housing in Texas colonias
June 23, 2009 Comments Off
“We continued not in a state of indolence, but hunted every day, and prepared a little cottage to defend us from the winter storms.” – Daniel Boone As the Southwest Airlines flight climbed upward from the El Paso Airport it banked southeast over the area known locally as the Lower Valley. The rich soils along […]
Read moreTexas colonia problems need to be put back on the front burner
June 21, 2009 2 Comments
Eight to ten years ago the colonias were subject to public attention and policy action. Funds were appropriated to provide water and sewer services, model subdivision standards were enacted to restrain the development of substandard colonias, legislation was passed to restrict exploitive contract for deed sales, state agencies worked to convert contracts for deeds into […]
Read moreThe present day saga on one Texas non-border colonia
July 11, 2008 Comments Off
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 moreEl Cenizo community leader Lupe De Leon fought for property rights, housing, better living conditions
July 3, 2008 Comments Off
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 moreCurbing substandard housing in rural Texas
June 20, 2008 1 Comment
Watch John Henneberger’s testimony before the Texas Seante International Relations and Trade Committee on substandard rural housing. Read my written testimony presented to the committee. On June 17 I presented invited testimony before the Texas Senate Committee on International Relations and Trade on the committee interim charge: Review state and local policies relating to development […]
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