Higher prices put pressure on city
As the need for affordable housing rises, barriers remain
Now that city officials have sidelined a mixedincome apartment project planned for an upscale area near the Galleria, a thorny question remains: Where to buildnow?
Academic studies and policy debates have circulated for years on how to address this very issue, which is exacerbated bystagnating incomes and sharply rising housing costs even in traditionally affordable cities like Houston.
“The gap is growing larger and larger,” said University of Texas professor Elizabeth Mueller, whospecializes in affordable housing issues. “Public resources are not growing larger.”
Despite legal mandates to build in more desirable areas, political pushback, neighborhood opposition and even state law have stalled some local projects; others were stopped because they were proposed in “The gap is growing larger and larger.” Elizabeth Mueller, University of Texas professor who specializes in affordable housing issues neighborhoods that federal officials and housing advocates deemed too economically disadvantaged.
A recent federal report and national experts suggest Texas’ system for allocating tax credits to build affordable housing is at odds with federal mandates to undo years of segregation andconcentrated poverty.
The rejection of the Houston Housing Authority’ s most recent proposal, to build in one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the city, has now exposed the city to increased scrutiny and potential discrimination lawsuits.
On one side, the federal government and fair housing advocates demand such projects be built in socalled “high-opportunity” neighborhoods with good schools, low crime rates and access to jobs and retail. A
recent U.S. Supreme Court decision supports those policies.
From the other side are the persistent complaints from Briargrove-area residents and federal, state and city leaders who argue the project would be too costly, hurt property values, crowd the public schools and increase crime rates.
Mayor Sylvester Turner cited the $56 million pricetag, or $240,000 per unit, as the main reason he would block the Housing Authority’s project at 2640 Fountain View. He called for the authority to find a new site in the same city council district and reiterated his enthusiasm to provide affordable housing through out Houston.
Historically, though, “not in my backyard” opposition has proved powerful.
In the city of Houston, the housing authority has not built new housing in a decade and five of eight proposed projects in the past three years were blocked. Similar battles have been brewing in Harris County, where affluent suburbs have lobbied their state representatives to either keep low-income housing out or to limit it to senior-living facilities.
A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report found Texas is one of a handful of states that essentially gives city and state leaders veto power over affordable housing projects through control of tax credit applications. The report says that “could have a discriminatory influence on the location of affordable housing.”
In its complex scoring method for doling out federal tax credit funds, the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs uses letters of support from state representatives and local governing bodies. It’s unlikely without the support of these officials that the projects would score well enough to receive tax credits. Turner’s refusal to let the Fountain View project come before the city council deprives it of $14 million in tax credits.
Local governments can get into legal trouble when giving in to community groups that aggressively fight low-income projects in their neighborhood, said Kate Walz, director of housing justice for the Chicagobased Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law.
“It seems to be a lesson that local governments continue to struggle to learn,” she said.
The activity of a private citizen is protected by the First Amendment, but when a local government acts on that it can face the legal liability, Walz said. The provisions in Texas to allow local governments to block tax credits is a “free pass for NIMBYism to grow,” she said, calling it “a dangerous pocket veto, may be the most troubling that I’ve heard of.”
“You really need to take the politics out of it and it just needs to be objectively measuring the viability of the project,” Walz said.
Houston Housing Authority Chairman Lance Gilliam, who announced he would resign in the wake of the controversy over Fountain View, also called the system a “barrier.”
“It politicizes the situation and puts elected officials in an awkward position,” he said.
At the mayor’s request, the housing authority is working to find another site in the same council district. The agency has not ruled out building the project on Fountain View without the tax credits. Gilliam said it will be difficult to find land that would be less expensive and still meet the “high opportunity neighborhood” requirements from the federal government.
“Land prices are what they are,” said Gilliam, a local real estate broker. “... We aren’t aware of any sites that are available and less expensive. There are parts of this district that have pockets of poverty and schools not as good as others.”
Mean while, the advocacy groups Texas Appleseed and the Texas Low Income Housing Service sent Turner a letter earlier this year warning that blocking this project could violate fair housing laws and lead to a discrimination lawsuit and loss of federal funding.
Nationally, the days of inner-city projects built with all low-income residents are over. Instead, the new buildings look like market-rate apartment complexes and often are priced for people at a variety of income levels.
Examples can be found in cities like New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. In many cases, private developers build a percentage of units that remain affordable with public dollars. In others, the government buys land and controls the cost of housing.
Whatever the strategy, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has made it clear that government entities receiving federal dollars must avoid racial discrimination in housing. In Houston, the city risks losing $41 million in funding and $150 million in disaster recovery money if it does not fall in line.
HUD officials did not res pond to a Chronicle request forc omment.
The Houston Housing Authority has estimated that between 80,000 and 100,000 families need affordable places to live here.
Access to quality housing can improve student success in school, help adults secure and maintain employment and provide a healthier living environment for families, said Corianne Payton Scally, researcher with the Urban Institute. Scally said more education from the government and developers is needed to eradicate the perceptions of low-income housing.
She said Texas’ system of requiring support of local politicians is “unfortunate” and puts the burden on the developer to educate the community about the project.
Several states, including Massachusets, New Jersey and Illinois, have attempted to pass legislation to create a system for allocating tax credits that would further housing in high opportunity neighborhoods.
“These deals are still riddled with conflict,” Scallly said. “I can’t say that anyone has gotten this perfectly correct.”
Amanda Timm, executive director of the Local Initiatives Support Corp., said Houston, unlike other major metro areas, has only in recent years felt the stress of housing costs. She said the public sector needs to step in and create a comprehensive plan. With a plan for the upscale neighborhoods, revitalizing areas and distressed parts of town, the mayor could more easily defend projects.
“Up until 10 to 15 years ago, you could still find affordable housing, regardless of income, that was decent and accessible,” Timm said of Houston’s market. “Our world has changed. This will require the local government to be more proactive. We’ve always been reactive.”
Houston has historically been hesitant to include government in land-use matters. Now, it is behind other cities in terms of income equality and diversification of neighborhoods, said Peter Brown, former city councilman and director of Better Houston. He said big cities’ policies helped create mixed-income neighborhoods that do not further concentrate poverty.
“We have not evolved that kind of policy,” Brown said.