Texas Housers' top researchers Erin Hahn and Sidney Beaty join A Little Louder to talk about their new interactive projects. The San Antonio Renter Profiles track the costs of renting, who lives where, and challenges that tenants in San Antonio face. The Harris County Eviction Mapping Tool investigates and maps where and how evictions happen, who is affected by them and who is most frequently ordering them.
Both Hahn and Beaty break down what they are seeing in large metros like San Antonio and Houston, and explore what it will take to create real change for low-income tenants.
We've come to the end of the 89th Session of the Texas Legislature and we're joined by Texas Housers' research director Ben Martin to take a tally on what happened. In this long and winding session, there was much that was discovered, including some new champions for housing! It's time to review the housing-related bills that passed, failed, and those that should have had a chance.
Hurricane Beryl and the May 2024 derecho showed the powerful and long lasting effects that a wide range of weather events can have. The federal government assessed $229 million in unmet need for home repair and personal property loss. Yet the City of Houston released its Action Plan in May, and there are $0 allocated to housing of any kind.
On this episode of A Little Louder, we're joined by Maddie Sloan, Director of the Disaster Recovery and Fair Housing Project at Texas Appleseed. We discuss what is missing from this plan, and we hear directly from tenants who gave their feedback on the plan and what they want to see.
If you'd like to particpate or offer comments, the City of Houston will have two virtual meetings on June 10th and June 12th. Written comments can be submitted to the city until Sunday, June 22nd. And all of this information can be found on the City of Houston’s Housing Department website houstontx.gov/housing
On this episode, Kathy Green from AARP Texas joins the show to talk about how affordable and low-income housing issues are an underreported problem for older Texans. We discuss how older Texans factor into many critical programs to aid with housing, food, and eliminating poverty and dispel myths about this growing population.
We also talk about what AARP Texas has on their legislative agenda, and housing is at the top of the list!
Texas Housers is tracking several housing bills at the 2025 Texas Legislature, some good and some bad. However, one piece of proposed legislation, HB 32 and its companion SB 38, seeks to dramatically expidite and overhaul the eviction process as we know it.
To learn more on how these bills would restrict tenants' ability to defend themselves, remain safely housed, or even have a fair day in court, Mark Melton from the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center joins A Little Louder to detail exactly what this bill proposes. We also get into how this bill was erronously marketed as a "squatter" bill, and how everyday people can learn more about active legislation and act accordingly.
Houston is a cross-section of so many factors when it comes to low-income housing. It is the fourth-largest city in the nation, is famously home to relaxed zoning laws, and hosts one of the highest eviction case filinings in the entire nation, outpacing several states.
With this in mind, Taylor Laredo joins A Little Louder to talk about his deep dive into H-Town's eviction problem – the Harris County Eviction Mapping Tool – and his takeaways from the project, including what we can do to vastly improve the issue.
Our first episode of 2025 is a running start right into the 89th Session of the Texas Legislature and there is much ground to cover.
On this episode, research director Ben Martin joins the show to talk about Texas Housers' major focuses for housing this session, what bills are grabbing our attention right away, and how you can get involved as well.
For more information on what Texas Housers is tracking, you can visit texashousers.org/lege25 for everything on housing at the 89th Texas Legislature.
In a supersized episode, we leave 2024 with a bang. Michael Depland speaks with the staff of Texas Housers to reflect on this past year, to talk about what we were most proud of this year, and a brief look forward into the new year.
Thank you to Sidney Beaty, Erin Hahn, Ben Martin, Suzanne Baker, Julia Orduña, and Riley Metcalfe for joining the show. We've got big things planned for 2025, so stay tuned listeners!
Ashley Flores from Child Poverty Action Lab joins the show to talk about the organization's recent 2024 Rental Housing Needs Assessment. With growing populations but without rising wages or homes to match that influx, the data tells a story that highlights an urgent need for affordable housing, especially for Very Low Income households.
Flores tell us about her findings in the report, what all of these compounding demographics indicate in terms of need, and how 10 years down the road will look if we do not act now.
The shortage of affordable housing is one of the largest crises facing low-income households in our state, if not the largest. While our work at Texas Housers has long focused on solving this issue, we are now seeing a renewed interest at our state capitol in addressing this problem from many policymakers, specifically on how land use deregulation can solve this housing crisis for good.
Ben Martin and Sidney Beaty from our research team join the show to tell us what exactly land use deregulation is, in what ways it falls short to help populations most in need, and what we can do to help those who are missed by this kind of policy.
You can read more about Land Use Deregulation in our research team's latest report that can be found on our blog.
On this episode of the show, Michael is joined by Heather Way of the University of Texas School of Law’s Housing Policy Clinic to discuss their latest report.
Best Practices to Prevent Substandard Conditions in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Properties: An Examination of Replacement Reserves Policies in Texas’ LIHTC Program dives into the issues that aging properties face as their change ownership, rules and accountability loosen, and tenants need far more protection.
To learn more, you can read Professor Way's report on our website.
As we work to serve low-income communities, it's important to recognize that they often are dealing with many issues at once, and they often overlap. Jamie Olson from Feeding Texas joins this episode of A Little Louder to talk about their mission to eradicate hunger across the state, how food and housing insecurity are linked, and how we must endeavor to work across issues to serve low-income people.
Live from the NLIHC’s Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition convening in Washington D.C., our Southeast Regional Director Julia Orduña speaks with members of the Northeast Action Collective out of Houston – Sade Hogue, Cheryl Henderson, Dana Jones, and Rita Robles – during a special panel.
The group touches on how their lived experience grounds their expertise in disaster housing recovery, and they discussed their critical work in Texas ensuring their communities have a seat at the table in disaster planning, response, and recovery.
We again want to thank @nlihc for the invite and hope you enjoy this lively panel!
On this episode, we're joined by Rich Acosta from My City Is My Home/Mi Ciudad Es Mi Casa as we touch on a wide variety of housing issues in San Antonio, including fighting for renters' rights, battling against source of income discrimination for veterans, pushing back against property tax assessments for lower-income homeowners and much more.
Only twice in a decade, Texas reviews its status on fair housing. State officials evaluate how they are affirmatively furthering fair housing, consider the condition of affordable housing across the state, and provide what steps they intend to take to ensure they are proactive in pursuing fair housing practices. All of these findings are collected in an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing or an A.I.
The 2024 Texas A.I. is now available for comment, and Housers' research director Ben Martin and research analyst Sidney Beaty join the podcast to talk about what's in this document, how Texas must do a better job in engaging affected parties and everyday people for feedback, and how you listeners can express your thoughts as well.
If you'd like to provide comment on the 2024 Texas A.I., you can do so here. If you have questions on this, you can contact Ben or Sidney via email.
Over the past six months, Texas Housers has spotlighted the stories of uninhabitable conditions and mass evictions at Cabo San Lucas apartments in Houston and the ensuing barriers tenants faced to remain housed.
Our work led us to investigate who actually owns Cabo San Lucas, yet no one seems to know. While our outreach team worked with tenants in Houston, our research team had coincidentally been at work to find information on property owners who attempt to escape accountability by filing as a "single property LLC".
To tie this all together, Housers research analyst Sidney Beaty joins the podcast to talk about how problem properties utilize these loopholes and what we can do to bring these owners to the light.
While most folks in the housing justice community have a strong idea of how tenant's rights and evictions shape our broader world, Andrew Nelson, Associate Professor for Department of Anthropology at University of North Texas offers a unique perspective in how the fight for these essential rights globally affected his advocacy in Denton.
On this episode, we discuss what works across our globe to gain rights, what his team has observed in Denton courts, and what cultural shift will be required to make Texas a tenant-friendly state.
Annually, Texas Housers' team in San Antonio releases its San Antonio District Renter Profiles to deliver a snapshot of how affordable rental housing is distributed across the city, what are the tenant demographics of each city council district, and newly added for this year, how evictions come into play for San Antonio households.
South Texas Regional Director Mia Loseff joins the show to discuss the findings of the renter profiles and how we can improve the lives of low-income tenants not just in SA, but across our state.
High summer temperatures in the Lone Star State are a regular occurrence. However, in recent years, extreme heat has grown more dangerous, with 2023 being the second hottest summer on record.
With this in mind, Texas is not a state that requires rental units to have air conditioning. And even if a tenant is fortunate enough to have AC, a speedy repair or accommodations are also not codified in law.
This was the main reason behind Texas Housers' latest report 'Renters, Air Conditioning, and Extreme Heat in Texas' and its author, Research Director Ben Martin, joined A Little Louder to discuss the current laws for AC in rental units in Texas and what we feel must change.