April 29, 2021

Landlords and tenants have received little of the $25 billion federal emergency rental aid allocated in December and the $20 billion allocated in March. State and local governments are responsible for disbursing the rental assistance, and some have been slow to begin. “It is problematic that more money isn’t getting out the door,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, a New York University professor. “There are downstream effects if small landlords can’t keep up their buildings, and you want to reach families when they first hit a crisis so their problems don’t compound.”

Texas lawmakers are considering banning homeless encampments statewide, citing health and safety complaints and effectively overruling an Austin city ordinance allowing tent cities. The proposed bills will make camping a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of up to $500. Advocates, practitioners, and Democratic lawmakers are staunchly against the proposal. “Banning people from sleeping or sitting down in public won’t help them find housing; it’ll just further ostracize them from our community because they can’t afford rent,” said Matthew Mollica, executive editor at Austin’s Ending Community Homelessness Coalition. “Any cut in that funding would be substantial, and it would really weaken our efforts to end homelessness,” noted Eric Samuels, president and CEO of the Texas Homeless Network.

Residents of Houston’s Greater Third Ward want to develop small-scale pocket parks in vacant city lots to break up one of the city’s green-space deserts. Research shows crime rates decrease in neighborhoods with pocket parks, and parks can also promote health and fitness, reduce traffic and pollution, and make communities more sociable. The COVID-19 pandemic has further emphasized the benefits of green space. Houston’s Parks Master Plan identifies University Village as being a “highest need” area for park access because 45 percent of the lots in the neighborhood are vacant.

State and local governments are rushing to use federal aid to prevent a worsening homelessness crisis as the federal eviction moratorium’s June 30 expiration looms closer. In September, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will also end subsidies for cities to move people experiencing homelessness into hotels. Federal relief packages provide a historic investment to help people find and keep housing but may only cover about a quarter of people who were experiencing homelessness before the pandemic.