The 80th session of the Texas legislature will be gaveled to a close sometime tonight. There is always a sense of relief among the participants, both the elected members and the lobbyists when a session finally ends. Over the course of the coming weeks I will write about the fate of a number of housing [...]
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Tag Archives: Housing policy
Activity at legislature leads to less blogging
April 12, 2009
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Despite my best of intentions I’m doing a lousy job with blogging the past two weeks. My excuse once again is the Texas Legislature. There’s only seven weeks to go till the end of the legislative session and there’s still a lot of important housing legislation pending. We have particular hopes that there will be [...]
Read moreCan Texas handle the increase in homeless and low-income weatherization funds?
March 3, 2009
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All of the money coming to Texas from the economic stimulus bill is a great thing. But as the size of the program begins to sink in there is reason to be concerned over the State’s ability to spend so much money so fast. Two of the programs that are causing the most concern by [...]
Read more…and over affordable housing issues on the Texas Senate side
February 13, 2009
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In response to my blog earlier today about the composition of the Texas House Urban Affairs Committee I was asked where things stood regarding the committee that oversees housing in the Texas Senate. That committee is the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee, chaired by Dallas Democratic Senator Royce West. Senator West represents southern Dallas and has [...]
Read moreThe president hears a type of story that we hear every day
February 11, 2009
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At his town hall meeting on Tuesday in Fort Myers Florida President Obama was confronted by Ms. Hughes, a woman with a type of problem that we are confronted with a daily basis. Homeless, she told him that she needed a place to live with a real kitchen and a bathroom. Ms. Hughes told him [...]
Read moreWhat we mean by affordable housing: an open letter to Congress
February 10, 2009
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In an open letter to Congress calling for more attention to affordable housing in the economic recovery bill, 547 housing advocates from across the country have made their case that the housing needs of the poor need to be included. The 16 Texas signers are: Advocacy Resource Center for Housing – McAllen, TX Association of [...]
Read moreFebruary 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 moreProposal to include housing in economic stimulus
December 19, 2008
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President-elect Obama has proposed a massive highway construction and public building energy retrofitting effort to serve as the basis of an economic stimulus program. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has proposed that low-income housing initiatives be included as part of the stimulus effort. Specifically the Coalition has recommended the following… Capitalize the new National [...]
Read moreHouston uses local housing funds to replace disallowed federal housing funds
November 18, 2008
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Houston Chronicle reporter Mike Snyder has uncovered a move by the City of Houston to repay over $15.5 million of disallowed HUD housing funds with housing funds the city collected from local tax increment refinance zones (TIRZ). I have been digging into the story a little to try to uncover some details. The explanatory documents [...]
Read moreMy hopes for the Obama administration’s housing policy
November 6, 2008
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I fancy myself a political realist. A person who spends their life working on social justice issues in Texans either tempers their expectations for rapid change or becomes very angry and frustrated. My expectations for the Obama administration’s housing policy is thus restrained based on my experience. Nevertheless, I’m cautiously (and perhaps irrationally) hopeful. On [...]
Read moreIt should be about more than just helping the middle class
October 20, 2008
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Let’s remember there once was a time when a US President enjoyed popularity for rallying our country to end poverty.
Read moreNational Housing Trust Fund becomes subject of political distortions
October 11, 2008
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Housing for the poor has been caught up in the partisan distortions of the political mudslinging season. This speaks poorly about those who spread these distortions. Let me me very clear. My organization does not endorse any political candidates. We exist to promote decent housing for low income Texans. Our work is more difficult when [...]
Read moreMy recommendations for dealing with the low-income homeownership problems in Texas
October 9, 2008
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I was invited to testify today before the Texas Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee on the status of state programs to provide owner-occupied housing for low income families. Here is my testimony. Testimony of John Henneberger, co-director before the Texas Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee on the committee interim housing charges October 8, 2008 On the behalf [...]
Read moreLBJ speech recalls struggle to bring low-income housing to Austin
October 5, 2008
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In 1968, at the end of his political career, with barely one month left in his term as president, LBJ came home to Austin. A small affordable housing project was being dedicated and the sponsors asked the president to make a few remarks. In his speech the president looked back and looked forward to the [...]
Read moreLBJ’s struggle to get Austin to accept public housing offers lessons for today
October 4, 2008
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Seventy years ago here, in Austin Texas, Lyndon Johnson a young, first-term congressman took up the cause of housing the poor as one of his first initiatives. His proposal that Austin house its poor sparked then as it does today great controversy. It stirred up issues of class and race and questions about the role [...]
Read moreThanks for supporting our 20th anniversary
October 2, 2008
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On the behalf of the board and staff of the Texas Low Income Housing Information we want to thank the more than 200 people who turned out for your 20th anniversary celebration last night. We looked back at the accomplishments that have been made in affordable, low-income housing in Texas in the past twenty years. [...]
Read moreNew Census study documents stunning levels of income inequality in Texas
August 28, 2008
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This week the US Bureau of the Census released a report titled. Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data From the 2007 American Community Survey. The report presents data on income, earnings, and poverty by detailed socioeconomic characteristics for the United States, states, and lower levels of geography based on information collected in the 2006 and 2007 [...]
Read moreWeighing political convention speehes on government’s obligation to lift up the poor
August 26, 2008
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The presidential nominating conventions are here and both parties will tell us about their vision for the country. I will be anxiously listening for both presidential candidates to articulate a commitment to end poverty. I’m hoping to hear something approaching the succinct and direct statement of President Franklin Roosevelt in his speech before the 1936 [...]
Read moreReporter alleges Section 8 tenant crime wave, but where is the evidence?
August 10, 2008
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The elite media has decided to focus on whether Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher holders are bringing crime to suburban neighborhoods. Instead of bringing to light the millions of poor families living in deplorable conditions because they cannot afford decent housing, instead of exposing slumlord exploitation of the poor, instead of chronicling the lives of [...]
Read moreAre we encouraging people to buy homes who shouldn’t?
August 8, 2008
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House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank, commenting on the current foreclosure crisis and the importance of the passage of the National Housing Trust Fund, told the Washington Post that, “One of the reasons we got into this situation is that we were pressing people, urging people, encouraging people to buy homes who shouldn’t buy [...]
Read moreSomething went terribly wrong at the Pleasant Village Apartments
August 5, 2008
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“This is a terrible place to live, and I just don’t know how to get out.” – a resident of the Pleasant Village Apartments in Dallas. Something awful happened at Dallas’ Pleasant Village Apartments last Wednesday. Here’s the chronology as reported in the Dallas Morning News. 10:30 p.m. Tuesday: A fight between girls at the [...]
Read moreTexas Housercast: Talking energy saving and green building in low income housing
August 2, 2008
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This week’s Texas housercast is an interview with Walter Moreau, executive director of Austin’s Foundation Communities the state’s largest nonprofit builder/operator of low income housing. Foundation Communities is a state leader in applying green building and energy savings design to multifamily affordable housing. In light of the requirements in the new housing bill mandating green [...]
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 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 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 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 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 moreHousers need to shun “over-opinionization” and appreciate the big picture
June 29, 2008
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One of the occupational diseases of working in affordable housing is overspecialization leading to “over-opinionization”. This malady infects housing practitioners who have worked for years in one specific area exclusively. The victim feels compelled to render strong opinions regarding the overall relative worth of his/her housing specialty while disparaging other housing needs and programs. Tax [...]
Read moreSunset Commission votes to reauthorize TSAHC for six years
June 28, 2008
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As I noted in a posting earlier this week the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation (TSAHC) is up for review during the next session of the Texas Legislature. As part of the Sunset Review Process the agency must be specifically reauthorized to continue in existence. On Tuesday the Sunset Commission board met and recommended some [...]
Read moreState of the Nation’s Housing – it’s getting worse
June 27, 2008
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I know I have been mostly blogging about problems lately. All of this negative housing news can be depressing. I really have been looking hard for some positive news in affordable housing. For example, I did just point out yesterday that Texas might get a housing trust fund increase. That is sure good news. But [...]
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- Mitt Romney at private fundraiser: I might eliminate HUD – The Washington Post
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Bo’s housing news clips: Study finds zoning segregates lower-income students in lower-scoring schools.
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Texas LIHTC housing program rocked by second earthquake in two months
- Low-Income Housing Program Compels Building in Poor Texas Areas – NYTimes.com
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Bo’s housing news clips: National home foreclosures and Galveston housing woes are top stories in recent weeks
