Urban Edge

Insights, perspectives and stories about building better cities and better lives

How research is helping HISD’s Sunrise Centers deliver community-driven resources to unlock student success

For many of the nearly 177,000 students in Houston ISD, access to food, clothing, shelter, health care, school supplies and other resources poses a barrier to success in the classroom. The district is counting on its Sunrise Centers to help meet those needs — and a research partnership to ensure they deliver meaningful impact on student outcomes.

Cuts to SNAP would impact hundreds of thousands of Houston households

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s most significant anti-hunger program, could soon see a $230 billion funding reduction if current federal priorities move forward. This move could impact millions of Texans, including hundreds of thousands of Houston-area families.

Tested by 2024’s storms, Houston is building stronger social infrastructure for faster, fairer disaster recovery

When disaster strikes, the immediate focus is often on safety and repairing physical infrastructure to get homes and business back up and running—reinforcing buildings, restoring power grids and clearing debris. An equally important component of recovery is social infrastructure—the networks, trusted relationships, institutions, and places that enable communities to support each other—particularly in times of crisis.

Nearly 600,000 Harris County residents lack a bank account — here’s where the issue is most concentrated

A Kinder Institute survey found 1 in 6 Harris County residents are unbanked — lacking a checking or savings account.

‘You have to take care of people first’: Ric Campo on leadership and Houston’s path ahead

Through a variety of civic and corporate roles, Ric Campo has played a pivotal part in shaping Houston’s growth, fostering economic development, and enhancing the city’s profile nationally and abroad.

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, explained

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is the largest federal initiative in the U.S. aimed at creating affordable rental housing, resulting in millions of units nationally, including tens of thousands in Harris County.

Underfunded and imperfect, vouchers are an important piece of Houston’s housing affordability

The Houston Housing Authority (HHA) serves about 19,000 households with housing choice vouchers. The Harris County Housing Authority (whose service area excludes Houston, Pasadena and Baytown) supports another 4,500 households with vouchers. Collectively, that is nearly 10 times as many households as are served by public housing, making the voucher program an important — if imperfect — way of providing affordable housing.

Houston region projected to attract millions more residents by 2050. Will it maintain its appeal?

Last year, Harris County experienced the largest raw population increase in the nation, contributing more than half of the metro area’s nearly 200,000 new residents. Projections released in February indicate the region will gain millions more people over the next 25 years.

Rising cost of utilities adds to housing affordability woes in Harris County

Nearly 70% of Harris County residents faced some level of difficulty affording their housing costs in 2024, according to a Kinder Institute survey. Among those who did, high utility bills were the most common contributing factor.

Naturally occurring affordable housing is crucial to Houston’s low-income residents. Preserving it requires action.

In Harris County, about 320,000 low-income households are housing cost burdened, paying more than 30% of their income toward rent. Given the low number of subsidized housing units and vouchers available in the county, this population is increasingly reliant upon “naturally occurring affordable housing,” or NOAH.