Urban Edge

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

Hispanics and young adults could reshape politics in Houston and beyond. They just need to show up at the polls.

Recent research from the Kinder Institute suggests more than 6 in 10 eligible voters in Houston are expected to vote in the upcoming election. But if past turnout trends and our data are valid guides, we are looking at another election in which the voices of young adults and Hispanics will be underrepresented.

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.

Houston has an independent political streak, but it mirrors the nation on several key issues

Houston has had a lengthy run of residents affiliating as politically independent, according to 40-plus years of Kinder Houston Area Surveys.

New research highlights potential responses to student homelessness caused by natural disasters

Hurricane Harvey rendered some 24,000 students in Houston Independent School District to be listed as homeless. The storm brought the district's overall total to more than 29,000 homeless students in the subsequent year, according to new research from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research’s Houston Education Research Consortium.

Repairing a Houston home can lift a neighborhood, but help is needed amid limited funds

Regardless of natural disasters, homes fall into needing repair — be it because of the age of a dwelling, ability of its residents to perform maintenance, or even disuse. According to a Kinder Institute for Urban Research report, 60% of residents in the Houston area have needed a home repair in the past year.

A Houston initiative helped 2,000 people of color become homeowners — but there’s more work to do

After renting for the majority of her adult life, Tonia Macklin recently became a homeowner for the first time. The native of southeast Houston achieved this goal with the assistance of the Harris County Homeownership Collaborative’s Own the HOU initiative, a multiorganization effort that seeks to bridge the homeownership gap for people of color.

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.

How Houston is trying to make philanthropy work smarter in disaster recovery

A national report last year by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy indicated an imbalance between how philanthropic disaster funds are spent.

Q&A: Helping bridge the gaps in maternal health care in Houston

The Community Bridges program continues to seek better outcomes for those in need in the Greater Houston area.

Master-planned community in northeast Houston puts affordable housing within reach

Last year, Nura Jemal, her husband and two sons lived in a two-bedroom apartment in southwest Houston. But with a third son on the way, they began to reconsider their living arrangement.