The Sierra Club has proposed a far better solution to the Texas Senate’s proposal to spend down and eliminate the $800+ million Texas System Benefit Fund. Here are the key points of the Sierra Club’s plan: On the System Benefit Fund, we prefer the approach taken by the House – create a trust fund going forward, […]
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Tag Archives: Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs
Senate Passes TDHCA Sunset
May 17, 2013 
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The Texas Senate passed out the TDHCA Sunset bill this afternoon. The bill voted out adopted the recommendations of the Sunset Commission, removing endorsement letters from legislators from the statutory scoring of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit award process. These letters have previously been discussed at Texas Housers. A floor amendment re-instituting the letters […]
Read more TDHCA Sunset Heads to Senate
May 10, 2013 0 Comments
TXLIHIS Co-Director John Henneberger testified this week at the Intergovernmental Relations Committee hearing on the TDHCA Sunset bill. His testimony appears below, and focuses on the role of legislative letters in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program: The entire discussion of the bill is available via Senate Real Audio starting at 1:16:42, and goes […]
Read more Riddle amendment to TDHCA Sunset bill is ill-conceived and discriminatory
April 29, 2013 0 Comments
I wrote last week about the ill-conceived amendment the Texas House of Representatives tacked onto the TDHCA Sunset bill. The first part of this amendment removed the Sunset Commission recommendations and gave state representatives virtual veto power over Low Income Housing Tax Credit applications. Today I want to focus on the other part of that […]
Read more TX House gives each state representative power to choose or veto housing tax credit developments
April 26, 2013 3 Comments
An eleventh hour amendment to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) Sunset bill by a strong opponent of housing tax credits gives each member of the Texas Legislature unprecedented power to choose the winning tax credit application in their district or to effectively block affordable housing tax credit developments altogether. The amendment removes from […]
Read more House Amends TDHCA Sunset Bill
April 25, 2013 1 Comment
The Texas House yesterday debated HB3361, the bill to continue the functions of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs after its review by the Sunset Commission. The main topic of conversation was scoring legislative support support letters for Low Income Housing Tax Credit developments. For those just joining this conversation, we’ve discussed those letters […]
Read more Texas LIHTC housing program rocked by second earthquake in two months
April 22, 2012 Comments Off
Reporter Karisa King’s full Texas housing story is out in the San Antonio Express News. It is a devastating expose of the Texas Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. $9.7 billion in federal funds have been spent by the State of Texas that has on balance enhanced racial and ethnic segregation through the State’s administration […]
Read more Coalition of conservative activists’ calls for consolidation of TDHCA and TSAHC
March 21, 2012 Comments Off
In a reprise of a plan decisively rejected by the Texas Legislature last session, a coalition of conservative public policy advocacy and lobby groups, including the Texas Tea Party is once again calling for consolidation of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs with the nonprofit corporation, the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation (TSAHC). […]
Read moreCourt rules Texas Housing Tax Credit program violates Fair Housing Act
March 20, 2012 Comments Off
This morning a federal court ruled in a case filed by a Dallas fair housing organization that the way the State of Texas administers the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program has a disparate racial impact, violating §§ 3604(a) and 3605(a) of the Fair Housing Act (Civil Rights Act of 1968). Judge Sidney Fitzwater, chief judge of the Federal […]
Read more New Texas state housing agency director discusses reorganization, relying on fewer, larger contractors
February 22, 2012 Comments Off
Tim Irvine, named executive director of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs just a couple of months ago, announced at last week’s board meeting a major staff reorganization and a new relationship with housing providers. Irvine announced the department will seek to work with larger, more administratively capable contractors to carry out the […]
Read more In Texas state government the tail wags the dog in affordable housing policy
February 16, 2012 Comments Off
A citizen might expect the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) Board of Directors to spend most of their time developing an effective state housing policy or working to make sure the State uses the funds wisely to help house the poor. Citizens would be wrong. The TDHCA board has for years spent […]
Read moreThe Texas affordable housing problem made simple
February 16, 2012 1 Comment
The Texas affordable housing problem in three sentences: 1) The poorest Texans have the hardest time finding housing they can afford. 2) The poorest Texans pay way too much for housing than they can afford. 3) Texas government spends most of the funds it has to build housing that is not affordable to the poor […]
Read more “Noodlng” and the resignation of Mike Gerber
August 20, 2011 2 Comments
In demonstration of the indifference of the Texas press to issues affecting the lives of the poor and the sorry state of coverage by the Texas press of state government generally, the Texas Tribune this week ran a story on Mike Gerber’s resignation as director of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, four months […]
Read more Effect of Elected Official Letters on the 2011 LIHTC Round
July 1, 2011 3 Comments
Abstract: Letters written by Texas State Representatives and Senators regarding the development of low income housing in the state had the effect of moving development to lower income, higher poverty areas of the state.
Read more Opportunity to tame public corruption lost in veto of TDHCA Sunset bill
June 28, 2011 2 Comments
When Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed the TDHCA Sunset Bill a week or so ago one thing that was lost was two years of work by the Texas Sunset Commission to reform a system of allocating Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) that has sent a dozen or so Texans to the federal penitentiary. It […]
Read more Conference committee strikes anti-NIMBY provisions from TDHCA legislation, continues agency 2 years
June 27, 2011 1 Comment
The Texas House/Senate Conference Committee on SB 1 has reached agreement to extend the life of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs two years. The committee also voted to strike provisions in the Sunset Bill requiring disaster planning as well as Texas Sunset Advisory Commission recommendations designed to reduce Fair Housing violations that plague the […]
Read more Governor Perry switches agencies responsible for disaster recovery funds
June 20, 2011 3 Comments
Shakeups in the State’s troubled disaster recovery program continue. In the wake of the virtual elimination of the Governor’s designated lead agency for disaster recovery, the Texas Department of Rural Affairs and a veto of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, the Governor has informed HUD of his intention to change lead disaster […]
Read more Short term 2 year extension in works for Texas housing department
June 20, 2011 Comments Off
Well placed Capitol sources tell TxLIHIS that Governor Perry’s staff have indicated they will insist on only a short-term two-year extension of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Last Friday the Governor vetoed the Sunset Bill for the State’s housing department, citing objections to requirements placed in the Sunset Bill at the behest […]
Read more Analysis: Governor Perry’s veto of Texas Department of Housing
June 19, 2011 4 Comments
On Friday Governor Perry vetoed the “Sunset Bill” for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) that would continue the agency in operation for 12 more years. Without passage of the Sunset Bill the state housing agency will wind down operations and cease to exist. The Governor says he vetoed the bill because […]
Read more State Rep Riddle says she wants no low-income housing in her district
June 14, 2011 1 Comment
To appreciate the fair housing problem in Texas just watch this video. Back in February, at a hearing on the budget for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA), Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle, House District 150, which comprises much of northwest Harris County (51% Anglo. per capita income $25,272, 28% renters), asked Mike […]
Read moreHUD Approves Phase I of Texas Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing
May 13, 2011 1 Comment
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 moreStudy: Leading Subsidized Housing Program in Texas Limits Economic Opportunity of the Poor
December 13, 2010 1 Comment
New report finds that Low Income Housing Tax Credit housing is more likely than other rental housing to be built in low-income, predominantly minority neighborhoods. Austin, TX – The Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, the #1 producer of affordable rental housing in Texas, concentrates its new developments in low-opportunity neighborhoods, according to a […]
Read moreLawsuit alleging race discrimination in Texas housing tax credit program clears (another) hurdle
September 30, 2010 Comments Off
The Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas has ruled that the Inclusive Communities Project has legal standing to continue its lawsuit alleging the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) is guilty of racial discrimination in the operation of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. Back in 2008, we discussed […]
Read moreNSP1-A Deadline Looms
August 30, 2010 1 Comment
Last week HUD announced the details of their enforcement of the 18-month deadline for obligation of the first round of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds (NSP1). NSP1 is a federal program for “the purpose of assisting in the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes,” and was funded through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) […]
Read moreTexas failing to spend federal funds for foreclosure-impacted communities
June 30, 2010 6 Comments
New report finds that millions are at risk of being returned to the federal government Austin, TX – Texas may be forced to return an estimated $42 million in unspent federal funds meant to stabilize foreclosure-impacted communities, unless state and local agencies begin properly utilizing the funds, according to a report released today by the […]
Read moreAdministration proposes changes to Neighborhood Stabilization Program, including additional funding
May 26, 2010 1 Comment
In a press release Tuesday the Obama administration discussed plans to reallocate funds from the first round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP1) and proposed a new third round of funding (NSP3). The release states: The Administration also announced plans to reallocate funds awarded through NSP1 that have not yet been committed to specific projects, […]
Read moreMississippi moves to 100% inspections of mobile home installations; so should Texas
May 17, 2010 3 Comments
In response to six deaths in mobile homes from the April tornado in Mississippi, WAPT in Jackson Mississippi reports that the State Insurance Commissioner of Mississippi has authorized 100% of inspection of installations of manufactured housing. Previously, Mississippi had a goal to inspect 50% of installations. Texas has a statutory goal of inspecting only 25% […]
Read moreFailing Waco property facing closure
April 9, 2010 Comments Off
Back in 2008 we listed the eleven subsidized housing properties with the lowest physical inspection scores from HUD. One of those properties, Parkside Village of Waco, recently received another failing inspection stores and will likely be shut down by HUD. (While two other Waco properties appeared on a more recent list of two subsidized housing […]
Read moreSlow start to weatherization programs: Not just Texas
February 23, 2010 1 Comment
On Tuesday the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General added to the recent parade of commentary regarding the slow start of the Weatherization Assistance Program, pointing out that as of December, nationally only about 5% of the total housing units scheduled to be eventually weatherized had been completed. As previously commented on Texas Housers, […]
Read moreWeatherization–a slow start for Texas may not be all bad news
December 22, 2009 2 Comments
The Dallas Morning News ran a story Sunday (here) regarding Texas’s slow start to the Weatherization Assistance Program. The story highlighted the fact that as of last month, the program had completed just a handful homes using Recovery Act funds. Austin’s KUT picked up the story this morning (here). Is this good news? No, we’d […]
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