Insights

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.

When it comes to flood buyouts, distance and race have played outsized roles

After Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans in 2021, Kirt Talamo, a fourth-generation Louisianan, decided it was time to go. He sold his flooded home, purchased his grandmother’s former house on New Orleans’ west bank, which hadn’t flooded, and moved in. It felt good to be back within its familiar walls, but his mind was on the future.

Rising flood insurance costs may be another blow to Houston’s affordability

Hurricane season is here, and with it comes a familiar feeling of dread in the Greater Houston area, particularly about floods. But more than five years after Hurricane Harvey, Houstonians may be less inclined to buy flood insurance because of cost increases that have begun to roll out in the last year, with the latest data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency showing that prices could go up by 75% in Harris County alone.