- City Approves First Subsidized Houston Housing Authority Development in a Decade, for Crosstimbers and N. Main [Houston Chronicle]
- Fiesta Holding Grand Re-Opening for Remodeled Store at 12355 Main St., Grand Openings for 3 New Stores To Follow [Houston Chronicle]
- Baileson Brewing Company Planning Location in Former Auto Service Center in Rice Village [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston in Midst of Gelato Boom as Sweet Cup Plans Second Bayou City Location in Garden Oaks’s Ella Plaza [Eater Houston]
- City To Rename Plaza by Downtown Library as Barbara Bush Literacy Plaza [Houston Public Media]
- Traffic Apps Not Up To Speed on Some Houston Road Work [KHOU]
Photo of Memorial City: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
I’m confused, so we just blacklisted a housing project in a high opportunity neighborhood to instead build in a low opportunity neighborhood for a price difference of $260K vs. $240K?????
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What’s the market rate cost difference in sqft between the two neighborhoods? The $260K sounds like an absolute bargain considering the exponential ROI you get with sending kids to school with better economic surroundings.
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There should be heads rolling all over city hall right now. This sounds stupid. This sounds Houston.
oops, $240k vs. $226K, doesn’t change anything.
I am with Joel, kinda. The Fountainview site was what, like $50psf. And the Crosstimbers site is what, like $10psf (round numbers). That is like an $8,000,000 difference in just the land cost, assuming the land is about 5 acres. Sounds like the poor folks are getting screwed, the tax payers, and the residents. But I bet the contractors, and the city reps are feeling pretty good.
NIMBY
Over 2 million dollars in bottom line savings changes nothing… HA!
Intentionally injecting low income housing into established, affluent neighborhoods to try and create some artificial “diversity” just so the people responsible can pat themselves on the back is ridiculous and shouldn’t be tolerated by the area residents.
Perhaps renaming the plaza by the downtown library after Barbara Bush the family should instead create a
“Literacy Plaza” in the just announced Houston Housing Authority development at Crosstimbers and N. Main.
Wouldn’t THAT be a better use of money? Downtown Houston doesn’t really need another public stage/café/lounge … but then, I guess this project isn’t really about encouraging reading, is it?
Toby, that 2MM is less than 6% of the total cost and based on the studies is a clearly sound investment for higher future growth.
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It’s like saying, well we could take all this money and invest it in low yielding bonds or we could add another 2MM, piss some NIMBY’s off and invest it in higher yielding bonds. If the underlying risk is the same and the funds can be secured, why would you not invest for higher yields?
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Turner just screwed over taxpayers.
I don’t know why I bother with chron.com links anymore…a story about a reopening of the Main St. store accompanied by pictures of the store on Wayside. Apparently no expense was spared in making the 6.2 mile trip from the Chronicle to take pictures of the actual subject.
Yay! Sweet Cup’s second location will be close to my work. I love that place!
@OhBrother
Diversity is not the reason they do that. I appreciate some of us live in a post facts world, but some of us don’t.
@MrErection – Agreed. There is good science that simply putting poor people in richer neighborhoods does more for them than just about any other governmental intervention. But I doubt helping people and getting the most bang for your buck is high on OhBrother’s desires.
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The CoH is in a tough spot. People treat Section 8 like landfills – sometimes it just has to go where people will let it. Just this time it’s not the near the airport.
What a waste of money. For $225k a unit, the city could just buy some pretty nice existing homes around town. Was this project originally hatched by Annise Parker?
governments effectively run the largests businesses in the world on an array of levels and the common people that “invest” in their business aka bond approvals, and anything related to getting officials elected to manage these various businesses are fed up with the way business is being handled….. may seem like a shock to think of it that way, but there’s a lot of us out there that think that getting shit done effectively means ripping the band aid off of all the hippy feel good sentiment and actually moving forward without all the unnecessary baggage that gets thrown in the way…. kudos to turner for showing some rational, forward movement in getting shit done!
and im sure it has nothing to do with funnelimg more kids into a highschool undergoing a 50+ million dollar expansion in an area that could use a little bit of rehabilitation…..
Toby, we’re all in agreement here which is why I’m confused as to why Turner’s action to choose a lower yielding investment should be considered “rational” and the “efficient” thing to do. If it’s just about spending the money regardless to spur demand and get some more jobs underway I can understand that being rational, but it’s by no means the most efficient way.
Anon, the upkeep and maintenance would kill you on the back end though. By the time you buy an old complex and update sufficiently to government code it’s better to just build from ground up.
MrErection and HEY HEY: You’re living in fantasy worlds, I’m a realist, sorry. I’m sure you would welcome the crime and lower property values with open arms (yeah, right).
@OhBrother – MrErection & I were discussing the effectiveness of it on a social level. You are discussing the locals desire to have Sec 8 in their neighborhood. These are separate discussions.
I don’t think he understands the difference between the “reason” you do something and the “results” of doing it.
Sure I do. It’s so an entitlement organization can pat themselves on the back for creating artificial “diversity”.
HeyHeyHouston “The CoH is in a tough spot. People treat Section 8 like landfills”
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As someone that owns property let me tell you why:
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1) I hate to say it but the quality of tenants is 100x worse (in terms of who we have to evict once they’re not getting their rent paid for. Or who is going to trash a unit. Or who’s going to cause problems at the property. We took a dozen or so Crestmont tenants (remember the one the city condemned? And then “helped” the people find new places to live? That wasn’t section 8 but same concept). Out of 12 tenants, NOT A SINGLE ONE paid rent after the first rent paid by the city. Not one. And people had the nerve to blame the property owner for the condition of the place they were at.
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2) Even if you are fine with #1, dealing with the government to get paid is a nightmare. There are so many forms to be filled out (of course, they’re fax of scans and made to be done on paper. Forget web forms or any modern method). And all the extra inspections (to you know, “protect” the renters). And you have to wait a while to get paid (while the person moves in). Unless you’re company is setup specifically to deal with section 8, it’s not worth it. And those companies/properties tend to be in bad areas since if they were in good ares, they wouldn’t need to accept section 8
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3) Lenders hate it. Buyers hate it. Insurance companies hate it. Try to refinance a property. “Do you have section 8 tenants?”. Try to insure a property “How many section 8 tenants?”. Or try to sell a property (same question).
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The best thing they could do if they REALLY wanted to help people is make the rental payments more like ‘regular’ rent. I don’t have to give regular renters my W9 info to get rent. Or fill out a ton of paperwork. We do a lease, they move in, pay rent. Easy. So long as the section 8 process sucks, the only people that will be willing to do it are those people who have a hard time renting to anyone else. And that means bad areas. Their process is another example of good intentions having a bad result.
@Cody I know and I get it. As a property owner, it would be a tough thing to swallow if they decided to put one in my back yard. From a social level – I’d like to see more experiments with just straight cash assistance but most people have trust issues with this (even though this is the same as the Earned Income Tax Credit).
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Like I said, its a tough spot.
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@OhBrother we get it. Instead of trying to do more good with the way things are – you’d rather just bash it all and really change nothing. I think this makes me more a ‘realist’ than you. Good luck abolishing the income tax, ending all entitlement programs, reverting to the gold standard etc etc etc.
HeyHey- They’ve duped you into thinking it’s a good thing. Don’t be so gullible.