Texas Tribune
Texas Republicans hint interest in housing affordability
by Joshua Fechter, The Texas Tribune – 2024-03-27 19:33:01
SUMMARY: Texas Republicans are focusing on reducing state housing costs, leaning towards loosening city zoning and land-use regulations to increase home construction. This bipartisan issue draws varying support due to different views on government regulation, property rights, and market forces. High home prices and rents may threaten the “Texas economic miracle” and alignment on zoning reforms appears possible, echoing patterns established in other states. Governor Abbott seeks to limit institutional investors to improve market access for families, while the Texas Public Policy Foundation advocates for removing local housing unit restrictions. Skepticism arises over protecting single-family neighborhoods and city autonomy, with some calling for state intervention to accelerate changes. Texas has a severe housing shortage, and despite recent tax cuts, the affordability crisis persists, prompting discussions of state-level zoning reforms and investment in affordable housing.
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Republican lawmakers have begun to signal that curtailing the state's high home prices and rents will be a major focus when they return to Austin next year.
Texas Republicans' traditional approach to combating growing housing costs has been to rein in property taxes, which are among the highest in the nation. But one idea to solve the country's growing housing crisis has been gaining traction in red and blue states alike: reducing or eliminating city zoning and land-use rules that determine what kind of housing can be built and where.
Many housing advocates believe these policies get in the way of adding enough homes. Curbing or getting rid of them, they argue, would bring down home prices and rents — and give would-be buyers a fighting shot at owning a home.
Unlike many of the contentious issues that drive stark partisan divides among Texas lawmakers, tackling the state's housing affordability crisis could foster rare alliances between Republicans and Democrats during next year's legislative session. That's because the underlying attitudes Texans hold about housing don't break cleanly along partisan lines.
Would-be homeowners and renters, regardless of political affiliation, are desperate for cheaper housing. Homeowners who tend to resist development — often referred to as NIMBYs, which stands for “Not In My Backyard” — can be found in Republican and Democratic strongholds alike.
For conservatives expressing support for zoning reforms in recent weeks, reducing government regulations and letting the free market take the wheel holds a clear appeal. It could also bolster property owners' rights by allowing them to build more on their land.
“There's too much government involved in the housing affordability issue,” said James Quintero, policy director for the foundation's Taxpayer Protection Project. “To the extent that we can either limit or get government out of the way entirely, we will begin to ease the problem and allow market forces to correct for it.”
State Rep. Cody Vasut, a Houston-area Republican who is close with House leadership, hinted he would welcome a proposal to at least tamp down on those regulations next session.
“We want to have good policies that encourage development in order to lower prices,” Vasut said during a February panel at a gathering of pro-housing activists and groups in Austin. “And the best way to do that is to get the government slightly more out of the way so that the free market takes off and provides a good product at a lower price.”
Allowing more homes to be built could also be another way of curtailing or reducing property tax bills, a particular obsession of Texas Republicans. It would spread the overall tax burden over a greater number of households, which has the potential to slow the growth of individual tax bills, the thinking goes.
“If you want your taxes to go down, you need more investment and more tax base in order to lower the [tax] rate, which then benefits everybody else,” Vasut said at the YIMBYtown conference, which takes its name from a pro-housing reform movement that stands for “Yes In My Backyard.”
This month, state Rep. Brian Harrison, a Midlothian Republican, also signaled his support for reforming local zoning laws and reducing land-use regulations as a way to tackle the housing crisis.
“If government wants housing to be more affordable, it should stop making housing so unaffordable,” Harrison wrote on the social media site X. “Let the free market work.”
The Texas Public Policy Foundation, the influential conservative think tank, soon after came out in support of eliminating local regulations that require homes to be built on a certain amount of land and restrict how many housing units can go on a particular lot.
Gov. Greg Abbott himself signaled growing concern over the state's high home prices earlier this month when he called for state lawmakers to rein in institutional investors' presence in the state's homebuying market.
Such a move in Abbott's view would theoretically level the playing field for families seeking a home, though housing experts have questioned whether curtailing investors' home-buying activity would ultimately benefit individual homebuyers.
“I strongly support free markets,” Abbott wrote on X. “But this corporate large-scale buying of residential homes seems to be distorting the market and making it harder for the average Texan to purchase a home. This must be added to the legislative agenda to protect Texas families.”
Abbott's remarks drew heat from some Texas conservatives who argued that such a move would unduly interfere in the free market — including Don Huffines, a former state senator who unsuccessfully challenged Abbott in the 2022 primary.
“Here are some solutions: ELIMINATE property taxes, STOP local governments from zoning out affordable for-sale housing, STOP the NIMBYs that are turning Texas into California, OPEN UP as much land to new homes as possible, BALANCE the federal budget, which should stop inflation and decrease interest rates,” Huffines wrote on X.
Republicans' interest in housing affordability may signal a growing alarm that the state's high home prices and rents could eventually imperil the so-called Texas economic miracle, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston
Housing in Texas is significantly more affordable than in states like California and New York, a major carrot for attracting new residents and employers alike. But as Texas' economy and population exploded over the last decade, so did its housing costs — a trend that only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While average home prices in Texas and its major urban areas remain below those in California, New York and Florida, they rose significantly during the pandemic. High interest rates have only made the prospect of purchasing a home more difficult for would-be first-time homebuyers.
Texas renters, too, have felt the pinch. More than half of the state's 4.2 million renter households now spend at least 30% of their income on rent and utilities, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
“If you have Texas being perceived as a place where people can't buy a house, then you will see the flood of people coming here from other states, and other businesses relocating here slow,” Rottinghaus said. “Republicans say that they don't want Texas to become like California. But in terms of housing prices, that's where things are going.”
More than half of Texans say they spend too much of their income on housing, according to a 2023 Texas Lyceum poll — a reversal from 2020, when more than half of Texans said the exact opposite.
“People's kids, grandkids and they themselves not being able to access the American dream of homeownership in the same way that historically Americans always have been able to is creating a clear mandate from voters that something needs to be done by elected officials at any level,” said Nicole Nosek, who heads Texans for Reasonable Solutions, a nonprofit that advocates for zoning reform.
Room for bipartisanship
Texas conservatives appear to be increasingly seizing on an emerging explanation for the state's housing affordability woes: though Texas regularly outpaces the rest of the nation in homebuilding, it hasn't built enough homes to keep up with demand amid the state's booming population growth. Texas has the second-worst housing shortage in the country, just behind California, according to a recent analysis by Up For Growth, a nonprofit that focuses on housing policy. Texas needs 306,000 more homes than it has, the analysis shows.
Housing advocates argue that shortage has helped fuel high housing costs and have increasingly placed a significant chunk of the blame on local rules that dictate what kinds of housing can be built and where. Those rules, they contend, have made it difficult for developers to build enough homes to match housing demand, driving up housing costs.
Cities in Texas tend, for example, to require a minimum amount of land that a single-family home must sit on — a regulation known as a minimum lot size, which research has linked to higher home prices. Most cities' residential land can only be used to build single-family homes and restricts how many housing units can go on a particular lot, which some advocates argue makes it difficult for developers to build enough housing to meet demand.
Cities also limit how tall houses and apartment buildings can be and require a minimum number of parking spots that single-family homes and apartments must have — all mandates that housing advocates, real estate developers, economists and academics say can drive up home prices and rents.
“If we're really worried about housing affordability, the first step should be reducing these zoning restrictions,” said Vance Ginn, a free market economist who heads his own economic consulting firm.
Large bipartisan majorities back policies to allow more housing amid the nation's affordability crisis, per a recent Pew Trusts poll. President Joe Biden's administration has argued that local regulations limiting what kind of housing can be built and where ultimately drive up housing costs.
“The bottom line is we have to build, build, build,” Biden said at a gathering of the National League of Cities earlier this month. “That's how we bring housing costs down for good.”
Blue states like California and Oregon and red states like Montana in recent years have each enacted reforms to loosen local restrictions on housing to combat their housing crises.
In Texas, even well-known adversaries appear to be aligning on housing. Republican lawmakers over the years have often targeted Austin officials for enacting progressive policies. But when it comes to relaxing land-use restrictions to allow more housing, the tenor of their proposed solutions is remarkably similar nowadays.
“We always think about politics as this spectrum or a straight line,” Vasut said at the YIMBYtown panel. “Politics is a horseshoe. … You see that there are maybe different desires or maybe motivations that are leading [people] to reach this conclusion, but that get both sides of the aisle wanting to address it.”
At a time of deep polarization and increasingly fraught culture-war issues, some see tackling housing affordability as an opportunity for both sides of the aisle to work together to solve a problem that affects every Texan, regardless of partisan affiliation.
For Democrats, zoning reform holds the potential to reduce racial segregation by allowing families of color greater access to housing choices — and thus better school districts and job opportunities — in wealthier neighborhoods. They also see allowing greater housing density as a means to fight climate change; if would-be homebuyers can find more affordable housing options closer to where they work, their commutes won't be as long, thus cutting down on their carbon emissions.
“The fact that folks have to go farther and farther out from the urban core to be able to buy a home is just having a disastrous effect on our environment and our climate,” said state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin.
For the past five years, Republican legislators have been on a crusade to lower homeowners' tax bills by reining in spending by school districts and local governments and giving targeted tax breaks to homeowners. Last year, they passed $12.7 billion in new tax cuts aimed at saving the typical Texas homeowner more than $2,500 over a two-year period.
Property tax cuts — and the possibility of eliminating school property taxes altogether — will likely continue to play a central part in Republicans' affordability agenda next year. Abbott told attendees at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Texas Policy Summit earlier this month that he is “insisting that we come back once again and ensure that we will continue to cut those property taxes until we get rid of the school property tax rate here in the state of Texas.”
But last year, Republicans acquired new vocabulary when it comes to housing affordability that fits into a growing bipartisan consensus on the matter. GOP legislators advanced bills, pushed by Texans for Reasonable Solutions, to reduce cities' minimum lot sizes and restrictions on residential density, and loosen local rules to allow the construction of accessory dwelling units — also known as ADUs or “granny flats” — in the backyards of single-family homes.
Those proposals largely flew under the radar and died, but Republicans have lately shown signs that they're interested in bringing similar ideas to the Texas Legislature next year.
There are signs that Texans already are open to such moves. A recent Pew Trusts poll found a majority of Texans support allowing townhouses and small apartment buildings on any residential lot — and apartments over garages or in backyards. Some 45% of Texans said they support reducing cities' minimum lot sizes, according to the Pew poll.
Conservatives are already laying the intellectual groundwork for lawmakers to tackle some kind of statewide zoning proposal. The Texas Public Policy Foundation earlier this month called for state lawmakers to get rid of minimum lot sizes and density restrictions dictating the maximum amount of housing units that can go on a particular parcel — a move that theoretically would allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and smaller apartment buildings in residential neighborhoods that currently only allow single-family homes.
“That's the right way to move because you're allowing market forces to voluntarily increase the level of supply,” Quintero said. “As supply goes up, housing prices will necessarily correct.”
Not without skeptics
It was a 1927 state law that explicitly grants cities the authority to regulate what kinds of buildings are allowed and where, and state lawmakers have the authority to curb or abolish that right.
But if Republicans pursue legislation next year to curtail cities' zoning powers and encourage greater residential density, they likely will run into stiff opposition from both Republicans and Democrats who view any such moves as an attack on traditional single-family neighborhoods. Opponents of zoning reform often argue that homeowners bought property in neighborhoods that only allow single-family homes expecting they would stay that way.
“We need all the housing we can get, that's what we need and we have plenty of land for it and plenty of places to put it,” said state Rep. John Bryant, a Dallas Democrat. “You don't need to bust up single-family neighborhoods to get affordable housing.”
Some conservatives disagree.
“No one has a right to preserve a neighborhood in perpetuity using the levers of government,” Quintero said.
Statewide zoning reform will likely also set off alarm bells for Democrats and city officials wary of any measure they deem a power grab by the state's Republican leadership. GOP officials have for the better part of the past decade waged a war on the state's bluer urban areas, culminating in a new law last year that aims to significantly curtail cities' ability to enact progressive policies — which cities have challenged in court.
“On any issue related to local regulations we believe government closest to the people is the best way to preserve the diversity of our great state and respect individual communities,” said Jennifer Stevens, spokesperson for the Texas Municipal League.
In a chaotic and dramatic late-night vote last May, House Democrats, joined by some Republicans, led a successful charge to narrowly defeat the accessory dwelling units proposal. Several Democrats — including Bryant, who spearheaded the charge — viewed the bill as an assault on cities' zoning powers and an extension of Republicans' ongoing efforts to limit cities' ability to make their own policies.
“This is a matter for the local city councils to decide,” Bryant said in a recent interview. “Every city is different.”
Not every Democrat agreed. Talarico, the Austin Democrat, voted in favor of the proposal, which he said he saw as a way to help cities combat their housing affordability woes, not punish them.
“Every housing advocate that I talked to said, ‘[allowing] granny flats is one tool in the toolbox to fight back against this crisis,'” Talarico said. “To me, it was just a policy no-brainer, despite Republicans' legacy of inappropriate overreach.”
Some Texas cities have initiated their own zoning reforms in bids to drive down housing costs. After statewide zoning measures failed at the Legislature, the Austin City Council voted last year to allow up to three housing units, such as duplexes and triplexes, on almost any lot in the city where only single-family homes had previously been allowed. They also are expected to reduce some of the city's minimum lot sizes later this year.
But some think Texas' affordability crisis is now so severe that intervention from the state is necessary.
“Local control is only good as long as we're allowing people to flourish,” said Charles Blain, president of the Houston-based Urban Reform Institute, another conservative think tank. “When local control steps in the way of people's ability to access economic mobility and upward mobility, that's when there is a necessity for the state to step in.”
Even if cities embark on their own zoning reforms, waiting for each of them to do so one-by-one can be a slow process that gives homeowners and renters who oppose zoning changes more chances to kill necessary reforms, said Vicki Been, faculty director of New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Enacting statewide zoning reforms would create more consistent policy between cities.
“What jurisdiction after jurisdiction has found is that going the way of local governments, doing their own reforms is very slow, very spotty and isn't going to get anything solved in the near term,” Been said.
Democratic state lawmakers have bandied about other ideas to bring down housing costs. They're quick to point out that Texas spends few state dollars on affordable housing and that lawmakers should put more money toward building it. The state could also put money toward rental assistance, they say, noting that last year's major tax-cut package left out direct tax relief for tenants.
Talarico hopes that whatever housing moves the Legislature considers, those moves don't exclude local governments from the decision-making table.
“It took us a long time to get in this hole,” Talarico said. “If we're going to get out of this, we have to start taking immediate and bold action.”
Disclosure: Texas Lyceum, Texas Municipal League, Texas Public Policy Foundation and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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Texas Tribune
Ted Cruz files bill to protect IVF
by By Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune – 2024-05-20 09:45:47
SUMMARY: U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Katie Britt have introduced the IVF Protection Act to safeguard access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) amid changing anti-abortion laws. The bill aims to make states ineligible for Medicaid funding if they ban IVF. This legislative effort follows an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that classified embryos as protected human life, prompting some IVF providers to pause services. The Texas Supreme Court may also consider a case impacting IVF. Cruz, seeking reelection against Democrat Colin Allred, emphasizes IVF's importance for families. Texas Governor Greg Abbott supports clarifying state laws to protect IVF, while Senate Democrats and House Speaker Mike Johnson diverge on federal versus state jurisdiction.
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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is leading a charge to protect access to in vitro fertilization as conservative states scramble to figure out where IVF fits in the new anti-abortion legal landscape.
On Monday, Cruz and Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, both conservative, anti-abortion Republicans, filed the IVF Protection Act, which would make states ineligible to receive Medicaid funding if they ban IVF.
This bill comes in response to a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court earlier this year that said embryos are protected human life when it comes to the state's wrongful death statute. After that ruling, many IVF providers paused those services until the Alabama Legislature passed temporary protections.
The Texas Supreme Court is considering taking up a case that could “upend IVF in Texas,” experts say. A woman has asked the court to overturn previous court rulings that awarded her ex-husband their three frozen embryos in their divorce, arguing that Texas' new abortion laws require embryos to have the same rights as living children.
Almost as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in summer 2022 and allowed states to ban abortion, questions emerged about the legal status of IVF.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed announcing this legislation, Cruz and Britt said Republicans want to “protect both life and IVF.”
“IVF has given miraculous hope to millions of Americans, and it has given families across the country the gift of children,” Cruz said in a statement. “I'm proud to partner with Sen. Katie Britt to ensure that couples in Texas and across the country have the opportunity to be loving parents, by ensuring that IVF is fully protected at the federal level.”
IVF is “profoundly pro-family,” the pair wrote in the op-ed. “Our bill will honor and support families seeking to welcome a new baby into their lives through IVF.”
Cruz is up for reelection this year, facing Democratic Congressman Colin Allred, who has made Cruz's support for Texas' abortion laws a key part of his campaign. In a statement after the Alabama court ruling, Allred said Cruz had done nothing to protect IVF, and his “dangerous record” on abortion and fetal personhood issues puts Texas families “rights and freedoms at risk.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has expressed his support for IVF, saying he believes the Legislature will clarify state law to protect the procedure.
Meanwhile, in D.C., Senate Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to pass two bills to protect IVF access, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he believes this is an issue best left to the states.
Pointing out that 86% of Americans believe IVF should be legal, Cruz and Britt say this should be a bipartisan bill that protects “life, family and personal liberty.”
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Trump says Paxton would make good U.S. attorney general
by By Jasper Scherer, The Texas Tribune – 2024-05-20 08:47:03
SUMMARY: Former President Donald Trump is considering Ken Paxton, Texas' Attorney General, for the role of U.S. Attorney General if re-elected. Trump commended Paxton's abilities and loyalty, highlighting his legal challenge to the 2020 election results and his support during Trump's impeachment defense. Paxton was impeached for bribery allegations but acquitted, with Trump claiming credit for the outcome. Recent polls show Trump leading President Biden in key states. Paxton's legal issues have diminished following the dropping of securities fraud charges, although federal investigations continue. If nominated, Paxton's Senate confirmation faces partisan challenges and opposition from notable Republicans.
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Former President Donald Trump said he would consider tapping Ken Paxton for U.S. attorney general if he wins a second term in the White House, calling his longtime ally “a very talented guy” and praising his tenure as Texas' chief legal officer.
“I would, actually,” Trump said Saturday when asked by a KDFW-TV reporter if he would consider Paxton for the national post. “He's very, very talented. I mean, we have a lot of people that want that one and will be very good at it. But he's a very talented guy.”
Paxton has long been a close ally of Trump, famously waging an unsuccessful legal challenge to Trump's 2020 election loss in four battleground states. He also spoke at the pro-Trump rally that preceded the deadly U.S. Capitol riot in January 2021.
Paxton's loyalty was rewarded with an endorsement from Trump in the 2022 primary, which helped the attorney general fend off three prominent GOP challengers.
Trump also came to Paxton's defense when he was impeached last year for allegedly accepting bribes and abusing the power of his office to help a wealthy friend and campaign donor. After Paxton was acquitted in the Texas Senate, Trump claimed credit, citing his “intervention” on his Truth Social platform, where he denounced the proceedings and threatened political retribution for Republicans who backed the impeachment.
“I fought for him when he had the difficulty and we won,” he told KDFW. “He had some people really after him, and I thought it was really unfair.”
Trump's latest comments, delivered at the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Dallas, come after a series of recent polls have shown the presumptive Republican nominee leading President Joe Biden in a handful of key battleground states.
Paxton has also seen his political prospects rise in recent months, after prosecutors agreed in March to drop three felony counts of securities fraud that had loomed over Paxton for nearly his entire tenure as attorney general. The resolution of the nine-year-old case, along with Paxton's impeachment acquittal in the Senate last fall, has brought him closer than ever to a political career devoid of legal drama.
Still, Paxton's critics say he is far from vindicated. He remains under federal investigation for the same allegations that formed the basis of his impeachment, and he continues to face a whistleblower lawsuit from former deputies who said they were illegally fired for reporting Paxton to law enforcement. A separate lawsuit from the state bar seeks to penalize Paxton for his 2020 election challenge, which relied on discredited claims of election fraud.
If nominated, Paxton would need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The chamber is narrowly divided along party lines, with Democrats holding a 51-49 majority. One of the most prominent Republican members, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, has been an outspoken critic of Paxton, while Paxton has openly entertained the idea of challenging Cornyn in 2026.
Paxton is not the only Texan Trump has floated for a high-profile spot in his potential administration. In February, he said Gov. Greg Abbott is “absolutely” on his short list of potential vice presidential candidates. Abbott has since downplayed his interest in the job.
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These Texans aren’t taking buyouts despite repeated floods
by By Emily Foxhall, The Texas Tribune – 2024-05-20 05:00:00
SUMMARY: Recent floods in Harris County, Texas, have devastated homes along the San Jacinto River. Tom Madigan, who owns multiple properties, quickly started repairs without knowing the Harris County Flood Control District aims to buy out such flood-prone properties. The region has a longstanding buyout program to remove homes from high-risk flood areas, with about 800 out of 2,400 targeted properties purchased. However, buyouts are voluntary and often insufficient for low-income residents. Despite the program, many choose to stay due to affordability and community ties, while others like Madigan remain skeptical of receiving a fair offer.
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HARRIS COUNTY — After the floodwaters earlier this month just about swallowed two of the six homes that 60-year-old Tom Madigan owns on the San Jacinto River, he didn't think twice about whether to fix them. He hired people to help, and they got to work stripping the walls, pulling up flooring and throwing out water-logged furniture.
What Madigan didn't know: The Harris County Flood Control District wants to buy his properties as part of an effort to get people out of dangerously flood-prone areas.
Back-to-back storms drenched southeast Texas in late April and early May, causing flash flooding and pushing rivers out of their banks and into low-lying neighborhoods. Officials across the region urged people in vulnerable areas to evacuate.
Like Madigan's, some places that were inundated along the San Jacinto in Harris County have flooded repeatedly. And for nearly 30 years, the flood control district has been trying to clear out homes around the river by paying property owners to move, then returning the lots to nature.
The recent floods show why buyout programs can be important. These spots typically flood first and worse. Gov. Greg Abbott reported that hundreds of rescues took place in the state while the floods destroyed homes. A man drowned and a child was swept away into the floods. One Harris County resident described climbing on top of his motor home as the water rose before first responders rescued him.
But the disaster and its aftermath also illustrate why buyouts are complicated to carry out even in Harris County, home to Houston, which has one of the most robust buyout programs in the country. The flood control district has identified roughly 2,400 properties as current buyout candidates around the San Jacinto; the district and county have bought about 800 of them.
Nearly all of the district's buyouts are voluntary. If an owner doesn't want to sell, the district can't force them out.
Buyouts make sense for some people who can't be protected from floods, said Alessandra Jerolleman, director of research for the Center on Environment, Land and Law at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
But buyouts might not provide lower-income people enough money to get somewhere safer, she said, and they could lose important support like child care from nearby family or neighbors.
“It's not as though it's a guarantee of reducing risks to that family,” Jerolleman said.
People who live near the river and who have endured repeated floods explained that they've stayed because it's affordable and, most of the time, peaceful. Where else would they be able to buy anything like it? Some said they didn't think the government would offer them what they consider a fair price to sell their land. Some didn't know the buyout program existed.
Madigan started buying homes more than 15 years ago in the unincorporated River Terrace neighborhood because they were cheap. On Tuesday, the Houston firefighter drank a Heineken and grilled hamburgers for his work crew outside his most damaged house, which he rents to his brother. Sodden rugs baked in the sun on the driveway.
Madigan said he might have taken a buyout if it was a reasonable offer — but he doubted it would be. He said he needed to get the properties ready again for his renters. “I can't wait,” he said.
Two blocks away, water had swept through a yellow house Madigan rents to a family with a teenage son. One of the workers fixing the property, 21-year-old Omar Reyna, watched the family throw out pretty much everything they had. Piecing together new laminate flooring with his dad, Reyna kept thinking about a trash bag of Teddy bears and stuffed toys he tossed out for them.
He wondered if the parents had been saving the toys for another kid they might have in the future.
“The faster we get it done, the faster they can come back in here,” Reyna said.
Some people choose to live with the risk of flooding
The San Jacinto is the largest river in the state's most populous county. For years before Harris County's first floodplain maps were drawn up in the mid-1980s, people built homes near its banks. Even today, people can still build in the vast floodplain if the houses are high enough and have enough stormwater detention.
The flood control district tries to buy out homes in pockets of the floodplain that are deepest, said James Wade, manager for the district's property acquisition department. Those are places where engineers can't easily fix flooding problems.
Buyouts are meant to get people out of flood zones before their property floods again, not to help in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The process is slow: In some cases, it can take 18 months or longer to approve a buyout application, Wade said. The district pays owners the market value or pre-flood value for their house, determined by a third-party appraiser, plus moving expenses and a supplement to help them get into a house out of the floodplain, Wade said.
“It's a very equitable, fair program,” Wade said — but still some people don't want to leave.
Those who stay learn to adapt. They build homes on stilts. They monitor the river level and watch for releases of water from the Lake Conroe dam upstream. Some know intimately the routine of rebuilding: gut the house, clean it, put it back together.
The floor of 49-year-old Sean Vincent's house in the Forest Cove neighborhood in northeast Houston is 15 feet above the ground. Three feet of water flooded it when Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017. This month, the floods reached five feet high on Vincent's property. He cleaned out his waterlogged ground-level shed with help from church members. On Tuesday, he was building new shelves for it.
But most of the time Vincent, who works in railroad traffic control, said he enjoys the space surrounded by tall trees with room for his three kids.
“It's just really not a major part of our life,” Vincent said of the flooding. “Yes, it's inconvenient. Yes, it's now happened to us twice in seven years … It's sort of a trade-off for us. And it is lovely out here.”
“Where are you going to go?”
Then there are those who stay because they don't see anywhere else to go.
Jack St. John, 67, a retired long-haul truck driver, moved to Northshore 43 years ago and has had to clean up after two floods. He worries any time flooding threatens, but the neighborhood's advantages keep him there: He has no water bill because he has a well. His taxes are reasonable. The neighborhood has a fish fry in the spring and a barbecue in the fall.
“You know, when you leave, where are you going to go?” he said. “What's it going to cost to buy into another place?”
Farther northeast, in the Idle Wild and Idle Glen neighborhoods, the floods forced some residents to sleep under tarps. On one largely forested street, boats were turned sideways or flipped upside down. A small building was lodged in the trees. A car was in the ditch.
For several years, Elvia Bethea, 68, has driven from her home in Humble to check on people and pets here, and pick up stray animals. On Tuesday, she and other volunteers gave John Gray, 50, bamboo yard torches to fight the many mosquitoes, plus two trays of chocolate-covered strawberries.
Gray said he couldn't afford to fix up his destroyed house. He earns a living printing labor law posters for businesses. His printers at home were destroyed.
Gray said he had never heard of the buyout program but would consider taking one.
“Who do I call?” Gray asked. “I don't have a clue.”
From the back of a white SUV, Bethea handed some hot dogs to Jose Tabores, 68, who lives on Gray's land in a trailer now filled with mud.
“I'm coming for dinner, remember!” Bethea teased him.
Nearby, 51-year-old Veronika Scheid had been sleeping in a wet tent. The flood washed the shipping crate she lived in down the road and into the trees — along with her and her neighbors' belongings.
At a low point, when Scheid was crying over all she lost, she found a pink-and-white beaded necklace with stitching in the shape of a “V,” like her name. At the end was a charm shaped like a house.
She was grateful the person who owned the land where she stayed hadn't taken a buyout. Otherwise she would have nowhere to go.
“At least we have this,” Scheid said.
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The post These Texans aren't taking buyouts despite repeated floods appeared first on TexasTribune.org.
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