Insights

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.

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.

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.

National report: Houston metro is second-worst for providing affordable housing options

A new national report suggests the Houston metro area is one of the worst in the country when it comes to affordable housing options for its lowest-income households.

Mayors express uncertainty about inflation bill’s climate change efforts in national survey

When the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law on Aug. 16, 2022, the White House referred to it as “the most significant action Congress has taken on clean energy and climate change in the nation’s history.” But the majority of mayors said its impact has been marginal in a report conducted by the Boston University Initiative on Cities.

Who are Houston’s newcomer students, and how can schools help them succeed?

When immigrant children and teens enter the United States, the transition can be overwhelming.

Why thousands of Houston-area households could soon lose a crucial internet subsidy

A program aimed at helping underserved communities afford internet service is expected to end in the coming months, a potential setback for efforts to close the digital divide.

Research shows benefits of guaranteed income as launch of Harris County pilot program nears

With applications for the new local guaranteed income program Uplift Harris now closed, the pilot is preparing to launch.

Houston needs skilled workers. They might be at your local high school.

Houston is facing a growing demand for highly educated and skilled workers.

Residents leave Houston neighborhoods thanks in part to climate change

According to a report by First Street Foundation, 9% of census blocks in Harris County are listed as “climate abandonment areas,” where people are moving out due at least partially to climate change-related flood risk and not being replaced by incoming homebuyers.

Houston has the jobs, but employers must be willing to take a chance

There should be plenty of jobs available in the Greater Houston region this year, but is the area producing enough work-ready people to fill them?

Is buying a home easier or harder in Houston? Here’s how it compares to other Texas metros

By many accounts, the city of Houston has long been considered an affordable place to buy a home. But how well does it stack up against its peers in Texas? One way to look at this is to compare housing costs relative to income.

Across Houston, career and technical education is working. But could it work better?

“Career and technical education,” or CTE, tends to conjure up the image of students receiving hands-on training in high-wage technical occupations such as welding or HVAC repair. These programs do indeed provide the skills and experience to succeed in such fields, but today’s CTE offerings go far beyond the vocational training of previous decades.

National report highlights the roles of education and research in undoing the cycle of poverty

Over 1 in 3 children born around 1980 in the U.S. who grew up in households with incomes near or below the poverty line remained in low-income households when they were in their 30s. This is intergenerational poverty, and it carries profound impacts on the ability of individuals, families and communities to prosper.