Half of Houston renters struggle to pay for housing. Will the next mayor take notice?

By Yilun Cheng, Houston Chronicle | Sep. 15, 2023

It seems “the rent is too damn high” may not just be a campaign slogan fitting for a New York mayoral campaign. 

A quarter of Houston renters spend over half their income on housing, data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey shows. This places them in the “severely rent burdened” category, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Yet most mayoral candidates have not adequately prioritized housing affordability in their campaign platforms, experts say.

Housing is considered “affordable” if it comprises less than 30% of a household's income. The latest census data, released Thursday, reveals half of Houston renters pay above that threshold.

A recent Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research survey found that most Houstonians are worried about rising housing costs. Three-quarters of them want the next mayor to focus on affordable housing. However, only 44% of likely city voters, who are typically older and whiter than the average resident, share this sentiment, according to a University of Houston poll. For the electorate, crime and flooding are more pressing concerns, the poll results revealed.

“If I'm a candidate, there is the question of what will get me in office,” said Daniel Potter, senior director of research at the Kinder Institute who co-authored the survey. “Our voter base just isn’t thinking about affordable housing to the same degree as our general residents.”

While Houston has often touted its reasonable housing costs, its rents have soared alongside those of other major metros. From 2012 to 2022, census data shows the city's median rent rose from $823 to $1,246 – a double-digit percentage increase even after accounting for inflation.

Candidates in the Houston mayoral race have offered several solutions to tackle rising rental costs. Their proposals range from using city-owned land to develop new housing units to streamlining city services to boost development. 

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told the Chronicle she would use public land to build affordable apartments, negotiate lower rents with landlords across Houston and launch a new rental assistance program with HUD. “Houston must be an affordable and livable city,” she said. “And we must start with rental housing.”

State Sen. John Whitmire highlighted the need to boost home ownership. Home ownership rates in the Houston metro area have remained stagnant for a decade, studies show, with particularly low rates among low-income minority households. “Many Houstonians who pay rent now could easily pay mortgages with some help,” Whitmire said. 

Both attorney Lee Kaplan and former Metro Chair Gilbert Garcia have emphasized the need to improve the Houston Permitting Center. Developers often complain about the center’s prolonged and unpredictable plan review times. Last year, to cope with a 25% staff vacancy rate, the city extended the center’s customer wait time goal from 6 to 25 minutes.

Garcia also called for more transparency in Houston’s housing department. He blasted the city’s decision this week to scrap its $60 million affordable housing program, funded by Hurricane Harvey relief funds, following a missed deadline. “This is precisely why I'm calling for an audit of the city’s housing department,” Garcia said.

But Alan Watkins, executive director of the Houston Housing Collaborative, said he was not impressed with the mayoral candidates' housing policy proposals. Just last weekend, his group organized a forum where contenders shared their views on housing affordability.

“I wouldn’t say they have a deep, nuanced understanding of housing policies,” Watkins said. Most candidates, he noted, did not even list affordable housing as a priority issue on their campaign websites.

Houston stands out as one of the few major U.S. cities without a strategic housing plan. Watkins sees this as a sign of the city's past failure to prioritize housing, especially when other Texas cities like Austin, Dallas and San Antonio have established such plans.

“What we're trying to do is hold the feet of the next mayor to the fire so that they can continue to focus on this housing issue,” he said.