Urban Edge

Stories, perspectives and insights from the Kinder Institute

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.

How Houston, the world’s energy capital, is embracing the transition to cleaner sources

Eighty-seven percent of all respondents in the 43rd Kinder Houston Area Survey felt that Houston should take a leading role in forging a new energy future.

Beryl, derecho, power outages amplify Houstonians’ concerns about climate, resilience

Climate change and its impacts weighed heavily on the minds of residents in the 43rd Kinder Houston Area Survey. Those concerns have been repeatedly validated in recent months.

About half of Harris County residents unable to pay an unexpected $400 bill

An increasing number of Harris County residents are unable to readily come up with $400 to cover an unexpected expense — such as replacing tires worn out from crumbling roads, replacing a refrigerator full of food after the electricity is knocked out for a couple of days, or having a kid get sick or injured and needing to make a visit to an urgent care facility.

Why Houston’s progress on homelessness is in jeopardy

Homelessness is an ongoing challenge for the Greater Houston area, but one it handles better than most of its peers. That may soon change if new sources of funding are not secured by 2025.

How homeownership is changing throughout Houston and Harris County

Buying a home continues to be a good investment: It has a better rate of return than most other investments, and unlike stocks, a home provides shelter, a fundamental human need. Unfortunately, it is an investment that far exceeds the grasp of many Houston-area residents.