The City of
Houston Housing & Community Development Department (HCDD) requests a
Council Resolution to adopt the Ike Disaster Recovery Round 2 Community
Reinvestment Areas (CRA) as priority community revitalization areas in the City
qualifying for additional scoring points to compete in the Housing Tax Credit
program administered by the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs
(TDHCA). In addition to HCDD’s published
document, the Disaster
Recovery Round 2 Planning Study, and three years of
community collaboration on this place-based reinvestment initiative, the TDHCA
requires a formal adoption of the Community Revitalization Plan by City Council
Resolution.
On May 8, 2012, Mayor Annise
Parker was joined by partners including the Texas Organizing Project (TOP),
Assistant Secretary Mercedes Marquez of the US Department of Housing &
Urban Development, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Enterprise
Community Partners (Enterprise) in the announcement of community collaboration
and study in the identification of “Neighborhoods of Opportunity” as priority
investment areas for Hurricane Ike Disaster Recovery funds received from the
State of Texas.
Between the months of May
and August of 2012, HCDD staff, TOP, LISC and Enterprise collaborated on a
series of 13 public meetings with community input from over 500 unduplicated
participants offering recommendations toward a targeted revitalization
strategy. Community indicators including evidence of storm damage, requests for
FEMA assistance, poverty rates and neighborhood ethnic composition were
discussed, and various factors were assessed. These included transportation and
employment access, environmental conditions, infrastructure, blight, public and
educational facilities, and crime concerns, as well as other quality-of-life
factors contributing to equity and diversity. The community recommendations and findings from
the public meetings were subsequently utilized to identify targeted nodes of
investment and served as a starting point for the “deep-dive” planning study
titled Disaster Recovery Round 2 Market Analysis/Area Selection
published in May of 2013. Additional indicators analyzed by the planning study
included: food deserts, local economies, location and position in the
marketplace, parks and open space, transportation, and coastal resilience, amid
the discussion of other factors contributing to community development. The results of this planning study, combined
with data from other studies, resulted in the final community revitalization
plan areas demonstrated through the CRAs (a portion of the Near Northside, a
portion of Fifth Ward, and a portion of OST/South Union), presented in the
attached map.
The revitalization efforts
are currently underway and to date Council has approved $23.8 million of multifamily
investment in the CRAs, with an additional $26.5 million under consideration. Additionally, the City is leveraging $61
million in single-family, owner-occupied, housing repair and approximately $27
million in infrastructure investment in the CRA areas. As identified in the Planning Study, the goal
is to leverage approximately $152 million of housing investment, $27 million of
infrastructure investment and millions of dollars in private investment to
initiate community revitalization. Adoption of this resolution provides
acknowledgement by Council of these areas as priority revitalization areas for
the City of Houston. Evidence of this
resolution shall be made available to TDHCA and development partners, in order
to meet the requirements for incentive scoring in the Qualified Allocation Plan
(tax credit rules) and maintain the competitiveness of development partners for
top tier tax credit awards in the region.
This action was presented at
the Tuesday, February 17, 2015 Council Committee on Housing and Community
Affairs meeting.