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What are the principal affordable housing problems Houston faces?
What are the solutions to the affordable housing problems?
(1) The indifference of the City of Houston and the Housing Authority.
(2) The destruction of historic, low-income communities.
(3) Little Public Outcome.
(1) We need more education to teach each other what works and what doesn’t work.
(2) The scarcity of land. Land is becoming very scarce in the City of Houston and the price of available land is skyrocketing
(1) A subsidy to help non-profits to purchase land.
(2) The city should wave fees. CDBG and HOME assisted affordable housing projects should receive relief from permits and impact fees.
(3) The city should implement an aggressive foreclosure policy and should promote redevelopment of these properties by non-profit organizations as low-income housing.
(4) Funding for operational support for non-profits. The Houston community needs to support their local CDC’s
(5) Trying to work torgether. I am encouraged by this years development of the Comprehensive Plan. It’s the first time the Housing Department has asked the Planning Department to participate in the process which is definitely a move in the right direction.
(1) Lack of community involvement in development of city housing policy. If you want to be a real player in the game then you have to participate in the game. You have to take care of your daily activity, running your cdc, moving your project forward and at the same time you have to participate in the larger, overarching process going on at city hall.
(2) Need to increase home ownership.
(3) Need to improve neighborhoods.
(1) We passed a bunch of what are called "tax increment finance zones" in the city. There are about eight of them that have a one third requirement under the law that one third of the increment go to affordable housing. Over half a billion dollars over the next thirty years will flow into the city’s coffer that’s designated for affordable housing
(2) We’ve got to have a public policy commitment and make sure we advocate that community development corporations are a part of the process and have a specific slice of the pie
(3) I’m a big believer that ownership is better than renting. I think the city ought to go to Austin in the 2001 session and advocate for limitation on property valuation increases to inflation. I think we ought to have a tax payer dividend. If the city ends the fiscal year with excess property tax revenue we ought to give some back, even if it’s 20 dollars
(4) I think over the next two years the city should turn our attention full force to the neighborhoods of Houston and we ought to use state law to do some innovative things. They passed a law in this past session, Neighborhood enterprise and empowerment zone legislation, where we can contract directly with you to take care of neighborhood needs from drainage to weeded lots to dangerous buildings.
Response to concerns of other speakers:
(1) We don’t have a shortage of land in the city, the truth of the matter is one third of the city is undeveloped, open land and it’s all over the place. It’s still reasonably inexpensive outside the inner city
(2) We do have an aggressive land foreclosure program - council just passed it. Our "Land Bank" effort. In about 2 1/2 years the Land Bank authority of Houston will probably be the single largest land owner in the city.
(1) Affordability. Rents are rising faster than wages. Fair market rent for a 2 bedroom apartment is $620 in 1999. What kind of salary does that demand? At least $11.56 per hour.
(2) The shortage of affordable units for the poorest 20% of American households. The strong housing market is driving up rents, making landlords more choosy and shrinking the available supply.
(3) The primary targeting by the city and county housing development departments to middle class and lower middle class homeowners and renters. The Housing Authority, in becoming more like a private sector rental agency, is losing much of its basis for existence.
(1) Public support for building more permanent, affordable housing.
(2) Wise use of housing funds by our local housing related departments, the Houston Housing Authority, the city and county Community Development Depts. And the Neighborhood Protection Dept. By wise use I mean committing more funding to residents 40% under the median income
(3) The Houston Housing and Community Development Dept. is commendably developing more apartments but these are not targeted to the $400 per month rentals so desperately needed. Houstonians should urge the department to include large numbers of really affordable units in their 5 year Consolidated Plan
(4) The Houston Housing Authority is developing attractive housing at Historic Oaks (the former Allen Parkway Village) and in Freedmans Town nearby. A recent Houston Press article revealed that the Housing Authority is setting too scrupulous requirements for Residence in their new housing. Their credit requirements are not based on rent paying records. This is the prime requirement of a good tenant and should be sufficient for these rentals. Tragically, the soon to be displaced residents of Freedmans Town are among the victims of this kind of triage
(5) The Neighborhood Protection Department's image is one of demolishing housing rather than preserving it. Demolition too often leads to an empty lot with weeds. Houston needs a department that gives generous time for repair to homeowners.
(1) Lack of safe and affordable housing
(2) Lack of housing that one can own. Renting is an option that everyone should have, but we should do everything in our power to encourage home ownership. What strikes you most emotionally about the situation in the 4th ward neighborhood is how long people did not exercise the option to purchase.
(3) In not all cases is the supply of housing adequate to have a place for every person to go.
Solutions:
(1) In those instances when people were building multifamily projects rent units, most when they applied for any assistance from the city had a target population of 80% MFI. What the city asked them to do is that any builder that builds a multifamily project with assistance from the city of Houston block grant monies or even from the bond dollars were expected to have a certain number of units that would be available for people who are at 30% or below MFI. That allows us to develop over time a number of units that the very low income person can come in to
(2) One of the things that we try very hard not to do is to relocate a person from one substandard housing to another substandard housing. We’ve encouraged property owners who own substandard housing to make applications for loans that will be available at affordable rates to upgrade those houses to the current standard. Most of those property owners don’t want a loan, they want a grant that is non-repayable. Everybody wants free money, but one of the things that the City has tried to do is to make sure that the block grant dollars that we do receive and any bond dollars we have at our discretion are used so that we can get the most benefit out of what is a limited amount of money. We have managed the block grant in such a way that it has increased each year.
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