Mayors express uncertainty about inflation bill’s climate change efforts in national survey
URBAN EDGE : March 14, 2024
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.
Residents leave Houston neighborhoods thanks in part to climate change
URBAN EDGE : January 23, 2024
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.
Across Houston, career and technical education is working. But could it work better?
URBAN EDGE : October 30, 2023
“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.
When it comes to flood buyouts, distance and race have played outsized roles
URBAN EDGE : June 16, 2023
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
URBAN EDGE : June 11, 2023
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.
More unhoused people are finding shelter in Houston. Ending chronic homelessness is the next hurdle.
URBAN EDGE : May 4, 2023
New homelessness data for the area was released by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County this week, with the 2023 mark showing little change from last year, but an increase in shelter capacity is keeping more people in safer conditions. Houston, considered a national model in reducing homelessness over the past decade, now looks to put a stop to chronic homelessness.