Center for Housing and Neighborhoods

‘Vulnerable people in vulnerable places’: How costs and climate collide in Houston’s housing system

More than half a million residents in Harris County and Houston live in neighborhoods facing a triple threat of flooding, extreme heat and poor air quality, according to a new analysis by the Center for Housing and Neighborhoods at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

Webinar: 2025 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston

This webinar will share findings from the forthcoming 2025 State of Housing report. A panel discussion will follow.

The 2025 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston

The 2025 State of Housing report highlights Harris County and Houston’s intersecting challenges around affordability, flooding, extreme heat, poor air quality, insufficient housing stock, and the rising cost of insurance to protect households from these vulnerabilities.

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.

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.

Public housing is effectively over in Houston. What comes next?

In September, the Houston Housing Authority announced it is ending public housing, following a national trend, as cities such as Chicago and Atlanta have also done so, with previously government-run developments being converted to federally subsidized but privately owned mixed-income communities with fewer affordable units.

Housing Affordability and Instability

Houston-area residents were asked how difficult it was in the past 12 months to afford housing costs, and if certain factors contributed to the difficulty they experienced

To build a better housing system in Houston, let’s start here

Houston has long been hailed as one of the country’s most affordable big cities, bucking national trends. But as the Kinder Institute and others have found, our affordability — and the economic opportunity that comes with it — could be slipping away.

Advocates for the homeless set for Houston’s annual count with funding, plan of action in flux

Next week, over 400 volunteers with the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County will conduct the annual point-in-time count to determine if homelessness is increasing or decreasing in the area.

Partnership with Houston Housing Authority offers an opportunity to rethink ‘opportunity’

In late 2023, the Houston Housing Authority received a $5 million federal grant to help move some of its families to so-called “opportunity neighborhoods,” areas with low poverty, high-quality schools and other amenities.

Houston’s new homes: Smaller, more expensive and farther away

In 2023, Harris County saw a record number of new homes sold — nearly 10,000 — highlighting the region’s growing housing supply amid a broader affordability crisis.

Doing the math: What it would cost to close Houston’s low-income housing gap

America’s housing shortage and housing costs have emerged as talking points in the race for the White House, with Vice President Kamala Harris addressing these problems in her opening remarks during the presidential debate with Donald Trump in September. Fixing them, however, will require federal, state and local action — and, of course, a lot of money.

Neighborhood Opportunity Mapping

Researchers assisted the Houston Housing Authority in data collection and analysis to identify opportunity neighborhoods (areas with high-performing schools, low crime rates, access to jobs, and other characteristics).

Houston’s rising homeowner insurance rates aren’t helping a widening affordability gap

Homeowners looking for a break from rising costs will probably not get any as recent disasters are pushing insurance rates higher.