Last week, the Wall Street Journal released an article titled, “Once America’s Hottest Housing Market, Austin Is Running in Reverse.” To the residents of Austin, this is great news—finally, home prices may be coming down. But a dip in home prices is only a drop in the bucket of housing affordability. Housing prices may be...
Austin’s Fox News 7 recently reported that there is a discrepancy between the Point in Time (PIT) count numbers which show that in January 2023 the Austin homeless population was nearly 2,300 while the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)’s numbers were closer to 6,600. The difference between these counts comes from how the information is...
Valentine’s Day is one of the most romantic days of the year, and also a great source of revenue for restaurants, candy manufacturers, and florists. Couples are exchanging gifts, going on dates, and generally spending money on their significant others. But in the last four years, even the smallest gifts have increased dramatically in price....
The Dallas City Council held a briefing recently to explore pathways to create an environment conducive to more affordable housing. There are many factors that go into the cost of housing, some of which are more easily addressed than others. But even having this briefing is a positive step toward housing affordability. Many citizens recognize...
The state of Texas, unlike much of the country, has mostly weathered the current economic downturn. But while our resilience is to be commended, we aren’t completely immune, and a clear example is our housing affordability crisis. Thankfully there is one reform that can bring Texans much needed relief. Suffocating lot size restrictions are among...
The ornaments are packed away. The mailbox is filling up. The season of giving has passed into the season of paying what you owe, and just as that credit card statement is on its way from Christmas so too is the next property tax bill beginning to take shape. Tax relief promised by the Texas...
America’s republican form of government is only possible because of the one person, one vote election process. This means that we have all agreed on the mechanics of the system, and that our votes all counted equally in determining the outcome, at least in theory. This system has been the basis of popular sovereignty in...
Austin’s homelessness situation is getting worse. On the same day that an exposé showed the dangerous conditions of the Northbridge homeless shelter, Austin’s Homeless Strategy Officer resigned. Within a week of this happening, a campfire started in an illegal homeless encampment and got out of control in a dry, drought-affected area on the northside of...
Explaining the mechanics of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is reminiscent of Lilliputian government in “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift. Gulliver observes that the process of selecting ministers consists of “five or six of those candidates petition[ing] the emperor to entertain his majesty and the court with a dance on the rope; and whoever jumps the...
Across the country we have seen states dropping policies that have failed to address the root causes of homelessness. For instance, San Fransisco has begun to hold people seeking services accountable by requiring drug tests and Philadelphia has banned “safe” injection sites. Even cities in Texas are beginning to question their current approaches and are starting...
The recent population growth in Texas, particularly Austin, has been a great blessing. Businesses have been relocating here, bringing jobs, stimulating the economy, and making the city and surrounding areas more resilient to the economic hardship that the rest of the nation is facing. However, with the massive influx of recent arrivals coupled with unnecessarily...
Lately, Philadelphia has not been known for its safe streets. Images from the Kensington neighborhood show mentally ill, drug addicted, chronically unsheltered individuals in an amalgam of squalor and human detritus. Online, footage from the mass looting of an Apple Store, Footlocker, and Lululemon has gone viral. Still elsewhere, open-air drug markets have become the...