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A year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ratcheted up the pressure on housing officials across the country to do what has rarely been done in Houston: build affordable homes in well-off neighbourhoods.
That is proving to be easier said than done.
The court warned that concentrating public housing in low-income, high-minority neighborhoods could violate the Fair Housing Act. Its guidance was essentially at odds with the goals of the Houston Housing Authority, which argued, controversially, that such a ruling would hamper its ability to provide new affordable housing.
A decade since the city housing authority last brought new affordable units to Houston, the agency is now embroiled in a seemingly endless tug-of-war with activists, developers and politicians over how to develop in areas with good schools and low poverty, while at the same time fulfilling its mission to revive distressed neighbourhoods.
All but three of the Housing Authority’s eight projects proposed in the last three years were blocked. And those that remain on the table – replacement housing in the Fifth Ward, a mixed-income complex in Independence Heights, and a politically thorny plan for affordable housing in affluent Briargrove near the Galleria-area – still face hurdles.
This leaves the stakes increasingly high for upwards of 100,000 Houston families in need of affordable options, facing a rising cost of living across the city.
Long considered a bastion of affordability, Houston saw unprecedented levels of demolition and high-end inner-city building during the post-recession real estate boom. Between 2010 and 2014, rental rates across the region rose two to three times the healthy growth rate of 3 percent.
New construction and demolition across historically working-class neighborhoods led to continued displacement as homeownership fell out of reach for many.
As of 2013, 46 percent of Houston-area renter households were spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing – making them “cost burdened” by federal standards – and 23 percent were spending more than half of their income on rent, according to a report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Houston Housing Authority president Tory Gunsolley estimated that 100,000 Houston households – or about 270,000 people – would benefit from affordable housing. Houston has a total of 78,000 subsidized units from a web of agencies, including the authority, private developers and nonprofit organizations.
Some say the shortage of affordable units is even greater.
Among those who has found it difficult to secure an affordable home is Adeline Gonzales, a single mother and grandmother who works with patients at the Texas Medical Center. Her household income dropped by two-thirds when she divorced 10 years ago.
Gonzales has struggled to support her 25-year-old daughter and 3-year-old granddaughter on $45,000 a year, 72 percent of the area median income for a family of three. She has been hit by three rent increases in two years, on top of other expenses.
“The rates that are going now are outrageous and not feasible for the living conditions,” said Gonzales, 53.