Texas Housers' top researchers Erin Hahn and Sidney Beaty join A Little Louder to talk about their new interactive projects. The San Antonio Renter Profiles track the costs of renting, who lives where, and challenges that tenants in San Antonio face. The Harris County Eviction Mapping Tool investigates and maps where and how evictions happen, who is affected by them and who is most frequently ordering them.

Both Hahn and Beaty break down what they are seeing in large metros like San Antonio and Houston, and explore what it will take to create real change for low-income tenants.

We've come to the end of the 89th Session of the Texas Legislature and we're joined by Texas Housers' research director Ben Martin to take a tally on what happened. In this long and winding session, there was much that was discovered, including some new champions for housing! It's time to review the housing-related bills that passed, failed, and those that should have had a chance.

Hurricane Beryl and the May 2024 derecho showed the powerful and long lasting effects that a wide range of weather events can have. The federal government assessed $229 million in unmet need for home repair and personal property loss. Yet the City of Houston released its Action Plan in May, and there are $0 allocated to housing of any kind.

On this episode of A Little Louder, we're joined by Maddie Sloan, Director of the Disaster Recovery and Fair Housing Project at Texas Appleseed. We discuss what is missing from this plan, and we hear directly from tenants who gave their feedback on the plan and what they want to see.

If you'd like to particpate or offer comments, the City of Houston will have two virtual meetings on June 10th and June 12th. Written comments can be submitted to the city until Sunday, June 22nd. And all of this information can be found on the City of Houston’s Housing Department website houstontx.gov/housing

On this episode, Kathy Green from AARP Texas joins the show to talk about how affordable and low-income housing issues are an underreported problem for older Texans. We discuss how older Texans factor into many critical programs to aid with housing, food, and eliminating poverty and dispel myths about this growing population.

We also talk about what AARP Texas has on their legislative agenda, and housing is at the top of the list!

Texas Housers is tracking several housing bills at the 2025 Texas Legislature, some good and some bad. However, one piece of proposed legislation, HB 32 and its companion SB 38, seeks to dramatically expidite and overhaul the eviction process as we know it.

To learn more on how these bills would restrict tenants' ability to defend themselves, remain safely housed, or even have a fair day in court, Mark Melton from the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center joins A Little Louder to detail exactly what this bill proposes. We also get into how this bill was erronously marketed as a "squatter" bill, and how everyday people can learn more about active legislation and act accordingly.

• Visit Who represents me? Texas Legislature Online to identify your elected officials.

Houston is a cross-section of so many factors when it comes to low-income housing. It is the fourth-largest city in the nation, is famously home to relaxed zoning laws, and hosts one of the highest eviction case filinings in the entire nation, outpacing several states.

With this in mind, Taylor Laredo joins A Little Louder to talk about his deep dive into H-Town's eviction problem – the Harris County Eviction Mapping Tool – and his takeaways from the project, including what we can do to vastly improve the issue.

Our first episode of 2025 is a running start right into the 89th Session of the Texas Legislature and there is much ground to cover.

On this episode, research director Ben Martin joins the show to talk about Texas Housers' major focuses for housing this session, what bills are grabbing our attention right away, and how you can get involved as well.

For more information on what Texas Housers is tracking, you can visit texashousers.org/lege25 for everything on housing at the 89th Texas Legislature.

In a supersized episode, we leave 2024 with a bang. Michael Depland speaks with the staff of Texas Housers to reflect on this past year, to talk about what we were most proud of this year, and a brief look forward into the new year.

Thank you to Sidney Beaty, Erin Hahn, Ben Martin, Suzanne Baker, Julia Orduña, and Riley Metcalfe for joining the show. We've got big things planned for 2025, so stay tuned listeners!

Ashley Flores from Child Poverty Action Lab joins the show to talk about the organization's recent 2024 Rental Housing Needs Assessment. With growing populations but without rising wages or homes to match that influx, the data tells a story that highlights an urgent need for affordable housing, especially for Very Low Income households.

Flores tell us about her findings in the report, what all of these compounding demographics indicate in terms of need, and how 10 years down the road will look if we do not act now.

The shortage of affordable housing is one of the largest crises facing low-income households in our state, if not the largest. While our work at Texas Housers has long focused on solving this issue, we are now seeing a renewed interest at our state capitol in addressing this problem from many policymakers, specifically on how land use deregulation can solve this housing crisis for good.

Ben Martin and Sidney Beaty from our research team join the show to tell us what exactly land use deregulation is, in what ways it falls short to help populations most in need, and what we can do to help those who are missed by this kind of policy.

You can read more about Land Use Deregulation in our research team's latest report that can be found on our blog.