Who's Afraid of Affordable Housing? City Council?

By Houston Chronicle, The Editorial Board, February 22, 2023

In the 1960s and '70s, Marvy Finger made his fortune building garden-style apartments in Houston. The units opened to courtyards with pools and clubhouses meant to attract swinging singles. But when oil went bust in the 1980s and rents plummeted, those places filled up with artists, students, immigrants and low-wage workers. Without anyone intending for it to happen, they'd become "affordable housing."

Finger's death last year marked the end of an era. Many of his era's garden-style apartments have been demolished, and with them, what experts call "organic affordability" is disappearing. A recent study by Zillow found that it now takes three minimum-wage workers to afford a typical one-bedroom apartment in Houston.

Land costs are higher now than in Finger's day, and for that reason, developers can't turn a profit building new affordable housing without some kind of subsidy. But few companies are willing to apply for government tax credits. The main obstacle? Neighbors' fear and their protests to keep affordable housing out of their backyards.

Last Wednesday, when Houston City Council considered whether to support the applications of 16 proposed affordable housing developments for 9 percent federal tax credits, opponents succeeded in getting votes on two of the projects delayed for a week. Both happen to be located in well-off parts of town: one, near Greenway Plaza on Richmond Ave., called Felicity Oaks; and the other near the Energy Corridor. 

We urge Mayor Sylvester Turner, at today's City Council meeting, to throw his full weight behind securing Houston’s official backing for those last two developments' tax credits.

Some homeowners who live near the Felicity Oaks sites raised familiar concerns, the sort of objections that often accompany proposed subsidized housing projects in such in-demand areas: increased traffic, parking problems, bad sidewalks, overcrowded schools, and parks and grocery stores that are beyond walking distance. Even the developer’s representative defending the project at City Hall politely acknowledged some of these concerns. What part of Houston doesn’t have some variation of those challenges?

While not perfect in every respect, the Felicity Oaks site has a stop along one of Metro’s best bus lines. It connects to thousands of jobs in the Galleria area, which is less than two miles away. One block down is a Costco. Next door to the Costco, there used to be a Finger-esque affordable garden-style apartment complex; it's been replaced by the Pearl Greenway, which bills itself as "luxury living." But unlike the proposed affordable housing development, residents didn't vociferously object to Pearl Greenway. Nor have they complained about other high-end highrises, midrises and hotels that keep popping up in their neighborhood.

“If people are saying they don’t want any more kids in the schools, then I expect you to be willing to say they are opposed to any more apartment units or single-family homes built in the area,” Turner said. “Otherwise you are just talking about this type of development.”

By “this type” the mayor means the affordable kind. Felicity Oaks is proposed to have between 100 and 110 units at different levels of affordability out of a total of 120 apartments, with one-bedrooms as low as $496 per month and a three-bedroom for as much as $1,400. When paired with vouchers, it’s possible people earning minimum wage could live there without packing three to a room. This number of units, a fraction of the total in new construction in the area, would offer a meaningful opportunity to a few families. 

Nonetheless, homeowners may fear not just traffic and parking woes, or overcrowded schools, but declining property values. Perhaps they fear crime or people from different backgrounds.

Notably, Sylvester Turner didn't start out a staunch advocate of building affordable units in wealthy parts of town. In 2016, his time as mayor got off to an inauspicious start when he stopped a development on Fountain View by the Houston Housing Authority after fierce pushback from area residents. The fallout out from that controversy included a civil rights settlement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the settlement, Turner agreed that Houston would aim not to concentrate subsidized housing in low-income areas.

Since then, Houston has used disaster recovery money to build affordable housing all across the city, balancing efforts to allow residents to stay in gentrifying areas with providing opportunities to live in wealthier neighborhoods with high-performing schools. We support that effort.

That's not to say that every such proposal should be approved. This board strongly objected to the Huntington at Bay Area development that Turner attempted to steamroll over the objections of his Community and Housing Development director, who resigned in protest.

But this round of proposals carries no such warning signs. The strongest objection to Felicity Oaks came from homeowners who said that the developer had not done enough community outreach. The week-long delay was meant to address that concern. And it's not as if the city's approval seals the deal: Even if the city backs the remaining two projects, the 9 percent federal tax credit is awarded by the state in a very competitive process. Determined opponents can stop proposals that the city supports. 

Turner has shown resolve in getting projects done over vehement opposition. Last week, the city allowed reporters to visit its new navigation center, where it temporarily moved people from a “tent city” underneath a downtown freeway. Many Fifth Ward leaders strongly objected, pointing out that the historically Black neighborhood has had to shoulder far too many unfair burdens, from industrial facilities to a concentration of affordable housing. They worried the center would add to their neighborhood's struggles.

“It is so heartbreaking,” Joetta Stevenson, president of the Greater Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood, told us recently. After learning of the navigation center only just before a City Council meeting, she said, “Nobody heard. They just didn’t care.” 

Fifth Ward is forced to adjust to a new facility. In a similar vein, we ask Turner and City Council to consider the objections of well-heeled west side enclaves, but not to yield to them. The west side can adjust too.