Much of the devastation from Harvey is centered on homes and housing. Our focus this week is on the housing and equity issues related to displacement, and recovery and development in the future. The news from the world of housing after Harvey, for the week of August 28-September 5, 2017:
- Although tenants’ homes are under water, their landlords are still demanding that they pay rent. Texas law allows a tenant or a landlord to terminate a contract due to a natural disaster only if the property is “totally unusable,” via the Guardian.
- Harvey will dramatically change the housing market in Houston for a long time. Once a city with a glut of rental properties, Houston almost overnight became a city without enough habitable housing units. Some estimate that 60,000 units have been damaged in the storm, about 85 percent of all available units before the storm. Rents are expected to go up as much as 10 percent in the area, the Wall Street Journal reports.
- Susan Popkin at the Urban Institute writes on the importance of inclusive development and learning from the past after a disaster.
- Follow the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s updates on Hurricane Harvey housing recovery
- Although unrelated to Harvey, still in Texas: The Austin American-Statesman reports Austin sues Texas for a law preempting the city’s “source of income” discrimination protection.