When disaster strikes, the immediate focus is often on safety and repairing physical infrastructure to get homes and business back up and running—reinforcing buildings, restoring power grids and clearing debris. An equally important component of recovery is social infrastructure—the networks, trusted relationships, institutions, and places that enable communities to support each other—particularly in times of crisis.
A Kinder Institute survey found 1 in 6 Harris County residents are unbanked — lacking a checking or savings account.
‘You have to take care of people first’: Ric Campo on leadership and Houston’s path ahead
Through a variety of civic and corporate roles, Ric Campo has played a pivotal part in shaping Houston’s growth, fostering economic development, and enhancing the city’s profile nationally and abroad.
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, explained
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is the largest federal initiative in the U.S. aimed at creating affordable rental housing, resulting in millions of units nationally, including tens of thousands in Harris County.
Underfunded and imperfect, vouchers are an important piece of Houston’s housing affordability
The Houston Housing Authority (HHA) serves about 19,000 households with housing choice vouchers. The Harris County Housing Authority (whose service area excludes Houston, Pasadena and Baytown) supports another 4,500 households with vouchers. Collectively, that is nearly 10 times as many households as are served by public housing, making the voucher program an important — if imperfect — way of providing affordable housing.
Houston region projected to attract millions more residents by 2050. Will it maintain its appeal?
Last year, Harris County experienced the largest raw population increase in the nation, contributing more than half of the metro area’s nearly 200,000 new residents. Projections released in February indicate the region will gain millions more people over the next 25 years.
Rising cost of utilities adds to housing affordability woes in Harris County
Nearly 70% of Harris County residents faced some level of difficulty affording their housing costs in 2024, according to a Kinder Institute survey. Among those who did, high utility bills were the most common contributing factor.
In Harris County, about 320,000 low-income households are housing cost burdened, paying more than 30% of their income toward rent. Given the low number of subsidized housing units and vouchers available in the county, this population is increasingly reliant upon “naturally occurring affordable housing,” or NOAH.
Rising costs and affordable housing challenges threaten urban areas in Texas
Cities in Texas are in the midst of an escalating housing crisis. Affordability is slipping even in Houston, one of the least expensive large cities in the U.S., said Caroline Cheong, Kinder Institute for Urban Research associate director of housing and neighborhoods.
Public housing is effectively over in Houston. What comes next?
In September, the Houston Housing Authority announced it is ending public housing, following a national trend, as cities such as Chicago and Atlanta have also done so, with previously government-run developments being converted to federally subsidized but privately owned mixed-income communities with fewer affordable units.
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