There is more to economic security than living above the poverty line.
Across Greater Houston, more than a million households struggle to make financial ends meet. Among those households across Fort Bend, Harris and Montgomery counties, about 306,000 live below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). However, this common economic measure only describes part of the economic reality in our community. The Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) data presents a more accurate picture of the economic reality across our community, especially regarding the number of households that are economically challenged.
What is ALICE?
According to the 2023 ALICE report for Texas by United For ALICE, 700,000 households across Fort Bend, Harris and Montgomery counties, or 31%, experienced ALICE in 2021 – they worked hard but couldn’t afford the basic necessities of life. The ALICE Report draws attention to the huge but often hidden segment of our community that is struggling to make ends meet, beyond those living on incomes below the FPL.
The ALICE data takes into consideration the ALICE Survival Budget, which is a bare-bones, real-world, conservative estimate for what it takes to make ends meet. It includes actual costs, such as housing, utilities, child care, food, transportation, health care, and a low-cost smartphone, and it changes based on the county of residence and size and composition of the household. Noticeably missing from the ALICE Survival Budget is the ability to save for emergencies or a rainy day. Individuals and families experiencing ALICE often feel the stress of living paycheck to paycheck and are one emergency away from financial hardship.
The ALICE Survival Budget highlights how a single adult in Harris County, for example, needed an annual income of $32,328 to afford the basics in 2021, while a family of three (one adult with one preschooler and one school-aged child) needed $61,548. In contrast, the FPL for a single adult was $14,583 and for a family of three was $24,860 in 2023 – a 121% and 148% difference, respectively. The individuals and families who earn above FPL but still can’t afford everything are often not eligible for assistance programs, public benefits, and other supports.
Comparison of itemized budgets for one adult versus one adult with a school-aged child plus pre-schooler in Harris County.
Households experiencing ALICE typically spend more than half of their income on housing and transportation, leaving less money for other essentials. The local cost of rent represents the greatest expense for a family of three in Harris County, averaging $1,208 per month. The same size family in Fort Bend would need $1,574 per month for housing and $1,334 in Montgomery County. The average monthly cost of transportation was $364 for the same size family across all three counties.
The ALICE data also reveals disparities and challenges faced by different groups of households in our community. By race and ethnicity, 43% of Black and 45% of Hispanic households were experiencing ALICE across Fort Bend, Harris, and Montgomery counties in 2021, compared to 25% of white households.
By age of head of household, those with a head of household under 25 years old or over 65 years old had the highest rates of financial hardship, with 40% and 42% experiencing ALICE respectively across the three counties.
By household composition, single-parent families with children were more likely to experience ALICE than married-parent households or single/cohabiting households without children. Single-female-headed households with children experience ALICE at 35% and single-male headed households with children experience ALICE at 45% across Fort Bend, Harris and Montgomery counties.
We see the number of those experiencing ALICE growing across communities. You can dive into the ZIP Code level data for prevalence of those experiencing ALICE and living below the FPL. For example, when reviewing ZIP code level data, 77417 in Fort Bend County has 6,923 households experiencing ALICE, an increase of nearly 5% since 2018. In Montgomery County, zip code 77306 has 2,139 households experiencing ALICE, up 14% from 2018.
What’s important about being able to look at the ALICE data from this lens is that households of all ages, genders, races, and ethnicities, living in rural, urban, and suburban areas, are impacted by financial hardship.
ALICE and COVID
What’s important about being able to look at the ALICE data from this lens is that households of all ages, genders, races, and ethnicities, living in rural, urban, and suburban areas, are impacted by financial hardship. The ALICE data shows that financial hardship is not a temporary or isolated problem, but a persistent and widespread issue that affects households across our community. It also shows that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation for many ALICE households. They faced employment shifts, health struggles, and disruption to day-to-day life activities.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, there were various temporary pandemic supports that provided a much-needed cushion for these struggling households, such as a range of direct assistance programs, including pandemic-specific unemployment insurance, economic impact payments, expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), and emergency rental assistance. The temporary relief mitigated the pandemic’s negative financial impact on ALICE households, avoiding what could have been a deeper economic crisis overall.
When combining the households that are living below the federal poverty level and experiencing ALICE, over a million households are forced to make difficult choices and risky tradeoffs every day across our area. This requires them to make tough choices, often forgoing basic necessities such as healthy food and health care which is why sufficient incomes matter for everyone.
How to Use ALICE Data
The ALICE data also highlights the opportunities and solutions that can help households achieve financial stability and well-being. United Way of Greater Houston is using the ALICE data to guide the Integrated Client Journey, which consists of a network of over 100 funded nonprofit partners that coordinate services to support those that identify as ALICE. The vision is that these organizations work together to help individuals and families to reach financial stability, ensuring that individuals and families in our community have the opportunity to thrive and to prosper.
We invite other service providers and community stakeholders to explore and use this data to gain a deeper understanding of the realities many of our neighbors are facing and how we as a community can lift up those struggling to make ends meet. To learn more about ALICE data visit https://unitedwayhouston.org/what-we-do/employed-but-in-need/.
Banner photo: Carrie Rai, FBCHHS Performance and Innovation Specialist
This article is the first of a two-part series that describes the community engagement plan and process to create Fort Bend County’s first Community Health Assessment and Health Improvement Plan since 2007.
In the summer of 2022, Fort Bend County Health & Human Services (FBCHHS) completed its first Community Health Assessment (CHA) in 15 years. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) defines a CHA as “an assessment that identifies key health needs and issues through systematic, comprehensive data collection and analysis. The ultimate goal of a community health assessment is to develop strategies to address the community’s health needs and identified issues.”
The CHA process was a collaborative effort, led by FBCHHS. The process of collaboration and community engagement began with identifying stakeholders from a variety of sectors within the community and the creation of the CHA Committee.
The committee was comprised of FBCHHS divisions and leadership and division representatives alongside community stakeholders representing primary health care, mental health, hospitals, private philanthropy, local government, non-profits, the faith community, academia, transportation, and public safety.
The committee was integral in guiding the process of the CHA, providing input for and reviewing the methodology, data, analysis, as well as determining the types of secondary data to collect, and what questions to ask in the survey and the key informant interviews. The CHA committee also made suggestions about who to interview and how to administer the survey.
More than 150 Fort Bend County leaders, residents, stakeholders and health champions and over 70 organizations attended the community input sessions throughout the CHA and community health improvement planning process. Additionally, FBCHHS conducted 25 key informant interviews and administered 845 surveys. These activities provided a platform for diverse agencies, community members and perspectives to be shared to generate inclusive, cohesive and attainable health improvement goals.
Event photo from The Big Picture – Fort Bend County
Community Health Priorities
FBCHHS used the Kaiser Permanente National Community Benefit decision-making criteria for the identification and prioritization of health needs. Quantitative data was compared against the following benchmarks: the state of Texas, U.S. as a whole or the top 10% performing U.S. counties. A health issue was identified when there was poor performance across the comparative benchmarks. Health issues were also identified through thematic analysis of qualitative data from input sessions and Key Informant interviews. Community health need priorities were determined when the same health issue was identified in both the quantitative and qualitative data.
According to the 2022 County Health Rankings, Fort Bend County ranks fourth in the state for best overall health outcomes. However, the CHA data illustrates areas for improvement among vulnerable populations that have disproportionate health outcomes. Black and Hispanic populations, people without health insurance, and people with low-income have poorer health outcomes. These groups struggle to access services, contributing to health disparities.
Source: Kaiser Permanente National Community Benefit, August 2015
While there are several areas where Fort Bend County could see improvement, residents, community leaders and stakeholders identified five top community health priorities.
Mental Health
Like physical health, mental health is critical to our overall well-being. Good mental health affects our thoughts and behaviors, helps us maintain fulfilling relationships, enables us to cope with change and adversity, and ultimately supports our contributions to society. Mental health is also closely connected with physical health. Poor mental health may lead to behaviors that harm physical health (e.g., alcohol and other substance use, lack of exercise, etc.), and having poor physical health can negatively affect our mental health. About one in four survey respondents stated that their mental health was not good for one to five days out of the past 30, and 46% said mental health has been a problem in their household.
About one in seven survey respondents stated that there was a time in the past year that someone in their family needed mental health services but couldn’t receive them — either because they couldn’t afford to pay (34%) or the wait times were too long (27%). Overall, one-third indicated that mental health services are missing in the community. The data from surveys reflect mental health access challenges we see in Fort Bend, specifically. Within Houston’s three-county region, Fort Bend has the highest ratio of residents to mental health care providers, though there has been improvement since 2017.
Housing
Affordable, safe, and stable housing is a basic need, and unsafe or unstable housing threatens our health, well-being, and economic security. At the same time, the cost of housing is the single largest expense for most households, and it has become increasingly unaffordable in recent years. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers affordable housing as not more than 30% of income. If a household spends 30% or more of their income on housing costs, they are “housing cost burdened.” Households that spend 50% or more of their income on housing costs are “severely cost-burdened.”
Renters are much more likely to be burdened by housing costs than homeowners. In 2021, more than 45% of renters were cost-burdened compared to 25% of homeowners; and 22% of renters were severely cost-burdened compared to 11% of homeowners. While the share of homeowners who are cost burdened has fallen since 2010, renters are more likely to be cost burdened now than a decade ago. Additionally, a person would need to work 3.2 full-time jobs at minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom rental property at Fair Market Rent in Fort Bend County. Fort Bend County’s population has already increased 41% over the last decade and is expected to increase an additional 15% to nearly 1 million by 2030, according to the Texas Demographic Center’s recent projections. Given these data, it is not surprising that one-third of survey respondents indicated affordable housing is missing in Fort Bend and more than half of Key Informant interviewees cited the issue as their top concern.
Obesity
Obesity, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, is a complex health condition affecting both adults and children. Obesity increases the risk for health conditions such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, hypertension, and more. Obesity is found to take more years of life than diabetes, tobacco use, hypertension, or high cholesterol.
Nearly 30% of adults in Fort Bend County are classified as obese, according to County Health Rankings, and the disease was the top health issue identified among survey respondents. While not the only related triggers, poor eating habits and lack of exercise can contribute to obesity. About 40% of survey respondents are concerned with poor eating habits and 39% are concerned with a lack of exercise.
Cardiovascular Diseases
Heart disease was the fifth most-cited health issue by survey respondents and Key Informants with more than one in seven identifying the diseases as a health concern. White and Black residents of Fort Bend die from heart disease at significantly higher rates than Asian and Hispanic residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WONDER data tool.
The National Center for Health Statistics shows that three out of 10 deaths in Fort Bend County are attributed to heart disease and stroke. However, we know that many patients with heart disease also suffer from other chronic conditions, including lower respiratory diseases, diabetes, and kidney diseases, which comprised an additional 6% of deaths in 2020.
Maternal Health/Prenatal Care
Babies who are born in good health and who continue to thrive with positive experiences, tend to grow into healthy and productive adults who sustain our population and contribute to our economic vitality. Of course, a newborn’s health depends not only on the mother’s health during gestation but also her state of health before pregnancy. Early prenatal care is defined as pregnancy-related care beginning in the first trimester (1-3 months) and has been viewed as a strategy to improve pregnancy outcomes for more than a century.
In 2020, the rate of women who receive late (after the first trimester) or no prenatal care in Fort Bend County (30%) is three times that in Texas (10%) and five times the rate in the U.S. overall (6%). Between 2019 and 2020, Fort Bend saw an unprecedented 10-percentage-point decline in the proportion of women who received early prenatal care — a drop we didn’t see in neighboring counties despite the pandemic. Black and Latino women in Fort Bend had the lowest rates of early prenatal care, which is not surprising because a lack of health insurance is the largest contributor to women delaying or not accessing prenatal care, and women in those groups have the lowest rates of health insurance coverage.
Community Mobilization for Change
Through the CHA organizations, community members, and other stakeholders are able to evaluate the health of communities, factors that contribute to health challenges in Fort Bend County, existing community assets and resources to improve the community’s health can also be identified. The Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) contributes to the advancing of strategies to shorten the gap to accessing services, resources, and disparities faced with the top five community health priorities. The CHIP brings focus to the health issues identified in the CHA and allows communities, municipalities, jurisdictions, and community partners to actively collaborate and create a united plan to improve the health of Fort Bend County.
Healthy communities do not happen on their own, but through the efforts of community mobilization, local government support and key stakeholder contributions. Key stakeholders include local elected officials, hospital partners, FQHCs, foundations, non-profits, religious organizations, school districts, HOAs and many others. The shared goal is always to increase the quality of health across Fort Bend County.
We invite you to join us in reducing the gap for accessing services and or providing resources for the community members to meet the needs identified from the top five health priorities. FBCHHS Office of Communications, Education and Engagement is available to present to your organization or business about the CHIP to bring further awareness on how your organization or business can aid the community members of Fort Bend County.
On January 25, 2023, in partnership with Montgomery County Community Foundation, we hosted our first event of the year: The Big Picture | Montgomery County. The room was full with over 75 leaders across various sectors, including Judge Wayne Mack, Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, Montgomery County, who assembled the Behavioral Health and Suicide Prevention Task Force in 2020. At this event, Understanding Houston shared key data highlighting Montgomery County’s strengths and challenges, and participants were able to react and respond to the data – the findings of this activity are below.
The program began with Julie Martineau, President & CEO of Montgomery County Community Foundation and member of Understanding Houston’s Advisory Committee. Julie shared how critical it is to use data in decision-making.
“Data is key to understanding what is happening in our community, where we’ve been, where we are right now, and where we are going. The change makers of Montgomery County are the people who can make an impact and use data to measure whether it is working or not.“
Julie Martineau, President & CEO, Montgomery County Community Foundation
Julie explained how Montgomery County Community Foundation works for the present and future well-being of Montgomery County, while Greater Houston Community Foundation works throughout Harris, Montgomery, and Fort Bend counties. Because of this overlap, there is often powerful cross-collaboration between the two foundations.
Julie shared how Understanding Houston is a resource for independent and accessible data that organizations, community and civic leaders, and other residents should use to measure progress and effect change.
Exploring the Trends and Data
Montgomery County has grown significantly, but wages have not kept up
Montgomery County’s population has grown nearly five times in just 40 years, numbering more than 620,000 according to the 2020 Census. Job growth was double the rate of the state and nearly quadruple the rate of the country, while GDP growth over the last two decades consistently outpaced Fort Bend and Harris counties, the state, and the nation.
While GDP grew 82% between 2010 and 2021 in Montgomery County, median household income grew only 7% during the same period. Not only have incomes stagnated, but income inequality has not improved in Montgomery County.
Nearly half of all income in Montgomery County went to 20% of the highest-income households, while just 3% of all income went to the bottom 20% of households. While the income gap between white and Hispanic households decreased by 22% between 2010 and 2021, the gender pay gap increased by 41% for the same period, and Hispanic households still earn about two-thirds of what white households earn.
Montgomery County’s poverty rate has increased recently, contributing to growing inequality. The percentage of children under five living in poverty increased from a decade-low of 12% in 2017 to 24% in 2021.
Nearly 1 in 5 children under the age of five in Montgomery County lives in poverty.
Households that live above the poverty line but earn less than what it takes to meet basic needs are called ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employees) – also known as the working poor. Combining households in poverty and ALICE, nearly two out of every five households in Montgomery County struggle to afford basic necessities like rent, transportation, and food.
Rent has increased and consumes a larger portion of incomes
In Montgomery County, rent increased 22% between 2010 and 2021 compared to an 8% decrease in housing costs for homeowners; the percentage of renters that spend at least 30% of their income on housing is double that of homeowners. Some individuals and families will move farther from city centers to access more affordable housing, which can translate into higher transportation costs.
Montgomery County residents typically spend 53% of their income on housing and transportation alone. On par with L.A. County residents (52%) – a place infamous for its expensive housing market and long commutes.
While a higher percentage of households in Montgomery County are homeowners (75%) compared to the state (63%) and the nation (65%), the homeownership rate in Montgomery County has not seen any improvement over the last decade.
Considering rising rents, homeownership appears to be increasingly out of reach for many first-time homebuyers. This is problematic because home ownership is still one of the most effective ways to build wealth and improve economic mobility.
Where we can afford to live determines more than housing costs
Where we live determines more than just our housing and transportation costs. It also affects our environment, including the air we breathe and the temperature we feel.
In Montgomery County, ozone levels were rated “F” by the American Lung Association – the same rating for Harris County. Montgomery County experienced 523 days of extreme heat, defined as 95°F or higher, during the 2010s decade. This extreme heat was a 231-day increase – the equivalent of nearly two-thirds of a year – compared to the previous decade.
Poor environment and lack of health care access contribute to poor health
Over 90,000 Montgomery County residents under the age of 65 do not have health insurance coverage and do not have adequate access to primary care physicians. There is only one primary care physician for every 1,674 residents compared to one for every 1,319 residents in the U.S. overall.
Clinical guidelines focus on the role of primary healthcare in obesity prevention, and obesity rates in Montgomery County have been up 14 percentage points since 2011. In just a decade, the percentage of residents living with obesity in Montgomery County went from being the lowest in the three-county region to the highest.
One out of three adults in Montgomery County are living with obesity.
Adding to healthcare challenges, Montgomery County has less mental healthcare availability than the state, and Texas ranks last across all states in access to mental health treatment. Montgomery County has only one mental health provider for every 1,069 residents.
Even more concerning, Montgomery County has consistently had the highest suicide rate in the region over the past two decades, and suicidal thoughts for young adults between 18 and 25 in the Houston area have nearly doubled. Research has shown that recent years have been especially difficult for youth and young adults due to social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and several subsequent traumatic events in recent years.
Educational outcomes suffered from the impacts of the pandemic
The pandemic delayed the opportunity to see the full impact of House Bill 3 (HB3), which was signed into law in 2019. HB3 required all pre-K programs to be full-day, which has added benefits over shorter-day programs. Montgomery County saw a 16-percentage point increase in the rate of pre-K students enrolled in full-day programs between 2018 and 2020, despite still having the lowest rate.
A higher percentage of Montgomery County kindergarteners assessed are considered kinder-ready (57%) compared to Fort Bend (54%) and Harris (45%) counties. However, not all kindergarteners in Texas are assessed equally. Only 31% of Montgomery County kindergarten students were assessed, compared to 96% in Fort Bend County and 90% in Harris County. This rate has been consistently decreasing in Montgomery County compared to a consistent increase in the neighboring counties.
If we look at a group of Montgomery County eighth graders and their educational journey through higher education, many do not ultimately earn a higher education degree or certificate. For every 100 students enrolled in eighth grade during the 2011-12 school year, 80 graduated from high school, 50 enrolled in a Texas higher education institution, and only 22 earned a credential or degree by the time they turned 25. Among economically-disadvantaged students, only 10% earned a degree or certificate compared to 30% of their wealthier peers.
Place-based disparate outcomes
Montgomery County’s economy has grown significantly, but that growth has not translated into growing wealth and prosperity for all residents. Income inequality has not improved, the poverty rate has increased, and nearly two out of five households struggle to afford basic needs. This inequality exacerbates the disparate impacts of rising rents, worsening environment, and low access to healthcare, which play a role in the vastly different outcomes we see for residents. According to research from Opportunity Atlas, one’s childhood zip code can tell a great deal about expected outcomes within each county.
On average, a child from a low-income family who grew up in Conroe earned a household income of $24,000 as an adult, whereas a low-income child from The Woodlands earned $53,000. About 38% of women who grew up in low-income families in a neighborhood in Conroe became teenage moms compared to 5% of low-income women from a neighborhood in The Woodlands.
“[The] community is not fully informed about what is truly happening in rural parts of [the] county. It’s easy in The Woodlands to be isolated from the poverty.“
Anonymous Participant
These problems cannot be solved alone. Cross-sector conversation and collaboration are required for Montgomery County to truly be a place where all its residents have the resources and opportunities they need to prosper.
Results from the Group Discussion
Given that many often need more time or capacity to converse and collaborate with those outside their organization, attendees were given time to reflect on how the data may align with what they see in the communities they reside, work in, and serve. Attendees reported that:
Many Montgomery County households struggle to afford basic needs, and there are disparities between neighborhoods regarding health, access to services, income, and housing.
There has been an increase in mental health issues among Montgomery County residents, youth and young adults in particular, and it is difficult to access mental healthcare.
Residents are often underinsured or uninsured, and there is a high use of emergency room services in place of primary/preventative care.
There is a severe lack of affordable housing.
Realizing that the county-level averages provided in the presentation can mask differences across various communities, attendees were asked how the data may need to align with what they see in the more granular communities they reside, work in, and serve. Attendees reported that:
Even though the data shows more access to mental health providers than primary care physicians in Montgomery County, mental health seems more difficult to access than primary/preventative care.
Schools in the south of the County appear to have better student outcomes than the county-level data show.
Access to health care is not a pressing issue within specific Montgomery County communities, likely due to new hospital facilities.
They do not see a reduction in the income gap between white and Hispanic households through the community they serve.
Given time limitations, not all quality-of-life indicators from the website were included in the data presented. Some issues attendees noted that were not in the presentation but were pressing challenges in the communities they serve were:
The lack of resources available to support individuals with autism spectrum disorder and with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
The lack of resources and services for the growing numbers of older adults (age 65+).
The income gap between white and Black households.
Lack of public transportation.
Food insecurity and food deserts.
Based on the most common themes discussed, mental health and poverty, the rest of the session was dedicated to discussing potential projects and ideas for collaboration around these two issues. Some of the suggestions that came out of the discussion were:
Mental Health
Partnering with local colleges to better prepare and increase the workforce of mental health practitioners.
Funding for mental health provider salaries to increase the workforce.
Establishing Community peer support groups.
Differentiating between mental illness and mental health and collaborating to utilize alternative services to help with mental health, such as community, exercise, animals, nature, etc.
Leveraging telehealth to circumvent obstacles such as transportation.
Poverty
Increasing the minimum wage to something that accurately reflects the cost of living.
Creating mixed-income communities to ensure affordable housing is available in high-opportunity areas.
Providing more mentorship to students, including expanding career and technical education (CTE) opportunities, local trade school resources, and removing barriers for individuals to further their education.
Greater Houston has gained a reputation for being generous. Historically, our region has often topped lists in national studies measuring total philanthropic assets, percentage of income given to charity, and overall financial health of nonprofit charity organizations. Our expansive, rich nonprofit sector enriches our communities and our local economy and is one of the largest contributors toward this reputation for generosity. Other likely contributors also include the national headlines of collective action after crises like Hurricane Harvey and Winter Storm Uri as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uplifting stories of community resilience are valuable, but are also often anecdotal. How generous are we really, and in what ways? Where can we improve our generosity? Let’s unpack the data on generosity in Houston, and whether or not the headlines and human interest stories match the reality.
Houston bands together post-disaster
The greater Houston region is no stranger to natural disasters. Fortunately, when disasters do strike, Houstonians step up. Total giving after Hurricane Harvey reached nearly $1 billion, the most on record after any disaster. Notably, and in the spirit of regional generosity, donations after Harvey were marked by a broad, grass-roots donor base. The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund administered by Greater Houston Community Foundation, for example, received an average donation of $100 from around 127,000 donors.
Some residents, however, are impacted more severely by disasters and are less likely to receive adequate recovery assistance. On a macro level, research indicates that federal disaster recovery and assistance policies place vulnerable groups at a disadvantage, making it more difficult for them to access resources or assistance. In Harris County, researchers have estimated that natural disasters can widen the Black-white wealth gap by an average of $87,000.
Another way to measure regional post-disaster generosity is through post-disaster contributions (both donations and volunteer-hours) at local mainstay charities. In 2020, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Houston Food Bank reduced their volunteers by 85% due to new safety protocols — and yet, that year, over 537,000 hours of service were contributed by 88,000 volunteers. The Food Bank also saw a 468% increase in financial donations in the first half of 2020 and took in $455 million in donations the following year.
Organizational impact and limited access
Communities banding together to volunteer their time and donate money require more than just individual effort. For generosity to take place in any meaningful way, and for individual efforts to combine to affect positive change and address real issues, there need to be organizations, like nonprofits, to facilitate giving, organize communities and ultimately connect seekers with resources and services.
Although Greater Houston has a sizable, flourishing nonprofit sector that includes about 15,660 public charities, residents in each of the region’s three counties has relatively low access to public charities, with fewer nonprofits per 10,000 residents than both the state and the nation.
Compared to the population, the region’s nonprofit sector doesn’t look so robust. While 15,660 isn’t exactly a dearth of nonprofit charities, the comparison does tell us that our region’s nonprofits risk being overwhelmed during times of crisis when demand is at its highest.
Who gives and how in Houston
About half of the residents in Greater Houston donated $25 or more to nonprofit organizations in 2019, which was similar to the national average (51%), and higher than the state average (45%). This puts Houston squarely in the middle of the other measured large metropolitan areas, and behind San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago and Austin.
Between 2011 and 2018, residents of the three-county region gave an average of $4.4 billion dollars per year, which accounts for nearly a quarter of all donations made by Texans. This impressive number has dipped along with the national average since 2018, likely due to a change in federal legislation that almost doubled the required deduction amounts for charitable donations.
The more money someone has, the more ability they have to contribute, therefore contributions by residents do scale with income, but those are not the only factors that impact donations. Among the three counties, there are large differences between the average contributions made by households that earn $200,000 or more, with high earners in Fort Bend County giving about half ($20,100) of the yearly average of those in Harris County ($38,661).
Large donations are, however, not the only factor in measuring a people’s or a region’s generosity; there are many ways in which residents can be generous.
Between 2012 and 2020, at least half of the residents (anywhere from 50-54%) in the three-county region reported having volunteered at least once in the last year. Between 2020 to 2021, that number went down by 14 percentage points, with only 40% of Harris County residents having volunteered in the last year. This follows a national trend, with many Americans reducing or completely stopping previous volunteer activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey conducted by Fidelity.
The Corporation for National and Community Service measured cities’ generosity using the above five metrics, which included volunteering, doing favors for neighbors, doing something positive for the neighborhood, participating in local groups or organizations and donating $25 or more to charity. All individual efforts — with the exception of lending a neighbor a cup of sugar or the like — require facilitation from a nonprofit charity organization or another local group.
Houstonians are generous, with potential to grow
One thing is certain: our residents will never want for inspiration. The national stories about Greater Houston’s generosity, tales of community resilience, civic engagement and personal sacrifice, while maybe anecdotal, get at what is essentially the truth about many communities in the region. Although not everyone will participate, those who do will continue strengthening their communities with dedicated and richly rewarding work.
Our region is certainly generous, although it has plenty of room to grow. And while generosity may have its genesis in individual efforts, it requires widespread, organizational oversight to thrive. Therefore, our substantial nonprofit sector must also have room to grow, if we want our region to truly thrive. We can take comfort in knowing that we’ve got both the residents and the resources to take generosity to unknown heights, and make an even greater impact in the future.
We live in eventful times. The past few years have been replete with once-in-a-lifetime events, including the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, historic natural disasters and a variety of galvanizing political issues in between. While reactions to these events run the gamut, their impacts have been widespread in our digitally connected world, contributing to increased engagement throughout and between communities nationwide.
Not only did more Houstonians come out to vote in 2020, many Houston-based civic and social justice organizations worked to support our residents. After all, civic engagement is more than just voting — it’s volunteering, communicating with elected officials, donating to causes and even having difficult conversations with friends and loved ones.
Engaged communities help one another, cultivate trust among residents and ensure all voices are heard. Not only can positive engagement result in the betterment of one’s community, it can also improve feelings of connectedness and reduce individual loneliness. Houston may be turning out to the polls, but how do we fare in other areas of civic engagement, and how do we compare to the rest of the nation? Let’s take a closer look.
How and when Houston votes
Voter registration rates are high and rising in the three-county region with Fort Bend (95%), Montgomery (93%) and Harris (89%) counties all significantly ahead of the state (72%) and national rates (73%). With each Houston-area county’s registration rate almost 20 percentage points higher than the national rate, it’s easy to think that Houston is especially engaged, but registering to vote is only the first step toward electoral participation.
Voter participation among those who have registered in the region, is still far behind the national rate, despite significant upticks in the three counties during the 2020 election.
Fort Bend County has the highest turnout rate among those who registered at 74%, yet is still almost 18 percentage points behind the national average of 92%. Although registration rates and turnout rates were both notably high for the 2020 election, the disparity between turnout among those registered in the region and the nation was not.
If the voting-age population is consistently registering to vote, what could stop them from casting a ballot? Some argue that a lack of competitive races in the more visible governmental offices dissuades Texans from casting a ballot. In the 2018 primaries, 83% of voters did not cast a ballot, and one of Texas’ U.S. Senate seats — in a state with an estimated population of 28 million residents in 2018 — was secured with fewer than 775,000 votes.
Research suggests that offering early voting is a viable way to increase voter turnout, but the Houston region’s voters already vote early. While early voting has recently become more popular all over the nation, voters in the Houston area choose early voting at a rate higher than the national average. More than half of the votes were cast during the early voting period for every election in the past 12 years in the three-county region, with early votes representing 88% of all votes in 2020.
Research has shown that Americans are more likely to vote if they know and understand the process, if the rules and regulations are easy to navigate and if they believe their vote “matters.” According to the Cost of Voting Index (COVI), Texas has not kept pace with many common reforms to voting processes like absentee voting and online voter registration, making it one of the most difficult states in the nation for a resident to cast a ballot. Texas was 50th on the 2020 COVI but has since risen to 46th, mostly on the strength of a full 13-day early voting period.
Charitable giving and volunteering
Public charities don’t just help those in need through acts of service and donations, they also give residents a platform for contributing to and engaging with causes that matter to them. The Houston region has a robust nonprofit sector (over 15,660 nonprofit public charities in 2020), and although many charitable organizations serve the region, the number of charities per 10,000 residents is lower in Greater Houston than in the state and nation.
Nonprofit organizations operate largely on individual philanthropy, and Houstonians are no strangers to charitable donations. Charitable donations are an important component of engagement; when people feel engaged in their communities, they are more likely to contribute to its improvement. Nearly half of Greater Houston residents claimed to have donated at least $25 to charitable organizations in 2019, which puts Houston somewhere in the middle of other major metros with a higher percentage of residents donating $25 or more a month than in New York City and Los Angeles, but less than in Austin, Atlanta and Chicago.
Much like having a significant nonprofit network, a community with a strong contingency of volunteers is likely to stay supported and engaged. Residents of the nine-county Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) volunteer less frequently than others at the state and the national level. About 30% of people who volunteer across the state and the nation do so less than once a month, compared with 38% of volunteers in the Houston MSA. In keeping with national trends, volunteer rates in Harris County fell 14 percentage points (54% to 40%) from 2020 to 2021, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Civic and social engagement
In addition to financial contributions made through charities, residents also provide direct service in their communities as members of civic organizations. Membership in civic and social organizations (which include non-profits, charities and advocacy groups) is another way to engage with a community and increase social connectedness. Social connectedness is the experience of belonging within a social relationship or network, not just within personal relationships, but within professional and community networks and beyond. Similar to the region’s large nonprofit network, Houston’s coalition of civic social organizations lags significantly behind the state and nation in the number of organizations per 100,000 residents.
In 2019, the three-county region had 3.2 civic social membership organizations per 100,000 residents. Texas, in comparison, had 5.2 per 100,000, and the U.S. 7.8 per. While it doesn’t nullify the stark contrast in access to these organizations, the number of organizations in the region has been rising, while those in the state and nation have been falling.
Actions may speak louder than words, but communicating with elected officials past election day is an important component of the democratic process. Unfortunately, it’s one many Houston-area residents don’t take advantage of.
In 2019, 6.5% of residents in the Houston MSA reported contacting their public officials at least once per year. Though marginally higher than the state rate of 6.4%, the Houston MSA does lag behind the national average of 9.3%. Although reaching out to elected officials does not always translate into legislative action, elected officials who do not hear from their constituents are deprived of the opportunity to understand how their policy ideas may affect our communities.
Why being engaged matters
Active participation in one’s community promotes deeper connections between residents and is the first step in creating a region that provides everyone the opportunity to reach their full potential. But without important information about the region’s different communities, we lack the full picture of what our residents are facing. The U.S. Census recently reported that they likely missed more than a half-millionTexans during the 2020 count, representing an immense amount of people that were left unaccounted for, and therefore not advocated for.
Census data is used to shape infrastructure and policy at every level of government. A study found that the 2010 Census was used to direct $101.6 billion toward federally funded programs at state and local governments, businesses, nonprofits, hospitals and households. Census data determines the number of funds allocated to everything from creating opportunities for jobseekers to deciding how relief funds will be distributed in the event of a disaster.
The issue of undercounting on the Census is an issue of underrepresentation, as the groups who are considered hard to count, and therefore the most likely to be systematically undercounted, include people of color, immigrants, refugees and people experiencing homelessness.
Houston is engaged, but more work remains
Comprehensive civic engagement requires not just individual, but organizational effort and attention. Having more Houston-area voices heard in our elections and other civic processes helps ensure that our region can achieve its full potential, and hearing from a more diverse set of perspectives ensures that more diverse needs are met.
Not all elections are nationally publicized, but they are all important. Though the 2022 midterms have some highly watched races on the ballot, it will be just as important that residents vote in subsequent, less visible elections. After all, our region is more than just its mayor and governor — it’s our judges, council members, school boards, sanitation leaders, local ordinances and so much more. Whether this year’s election is your first or your 51st, we encourage you to check what’s on the ballot and engage thoughtfully. Every vote, volunteer hour and voice matters — don’t let yours go unheard.
On October 6, 2022, Fort Bend County residents convened at Long Acres Ranch in Richmond, TX, to learn, engage, and explore ways to solve some of the county’s most significant challenges. At this event, Understanding Houston shared key data highlighting Fort Bend County’s strengths and challenges. Guests also heard from representatives from Fort Bend County Health & Human Services (FBCHHS) about significant findings from their recent Community Health Assessment. This event was unique as it was the first time Understanding Houston partnered with a county department for a presentation.
Fort Bend County Health & Human Services Team
Painting the Picture
The program began with Steve Maislin, President and CEO of Greater Houston Community Foundation, who shared an overview of the Foundation’s work and how it was established in 1995 to inspire and create meaningful change with our donors and for our community. In addition to being the Houston region’s hub for all charitable solutions, the Foundation is well-positioned to help its donors identify and invest in a validated network of agency partners throughout the Greater Houston region.
The next speaker was Dr. Jacquelyn Johnson-Minter, Director of FBCHHS. Dr. Minter shared how FBCHHS is the principal agency for protecting the health of Fort Bend County residents and providing essential human services. Dr. Minter emphasized the importance of the cross-collaboration needed for their ongoing response in addition to the emergency relief they provide during times of disaster. She conveyed that no one person or entity can solve the problems outlined in the forthcoming presentation alone, and this event was designed to help share the data needed to ignite cross-sector collaboration to address significant regional challenges.
Guests also heard from Rocaille Roberts, Program Officer at The George Foundation, where she helps to oversee how The George Foundation partners with the community to impact Fort Bend County and its residents positively. She encouraged everyone in the room, in their professional and personal life, to be open-minded about what resources we can all leverage to make an impact, as we all need to collectively think outside the box. She also shared how data helps their foundation make strategic choices about what issue areas to prioritize.
Sharing the Data
Population Growth
This leads us to the data shared by representatives from Understanding Houston. First, Nadia Valliani, Director of Community Philanthropy, began by grounding the conversation in the county’s population growth and change over time. Fort Bend County’s population has grown over 500% in the last 40 years.
Fort Bend County’s population has grown over 500% in the last 40 years.
Along with large population growth, there has also been a dramatic change in who makes up Fort Bend’s population. International migration is a large contributor to Fort Bend’s population growth, with one out of three residents being foreign-born in 2021, the highest rate in the three-county region, which includes Harris and Montgomery counties. Additionally, Fort Bend’s population has shifted from majority-white to an almost completely equal distribution of each major racial/ethnic group. Valliani shared how population growth is a significant strength as it helps to expand the economy and workforce. However, if not planned for properly, population growth can put stress on our infrastructure and environment. While the region’s diversity is a point of pride as it is an asset and opportunity to lead the country, diversity does not automatically mean inclusivity.
Fort Bend’s population has shifted from majority-white to an almost completely equal distribution of each major racial/ethnic group
The data shows that economic opportunity and prosperity are not shared among all residents in Fort Bend County. While the median household income in Fort Bend County, at $97,210, is higher than in Texas and the U.S., Fort Bend has larger income disparities by race/ethnicity. The income gap between white and Hispanic households in Fort Bend County was nearly $42,000 in 2019, according to data from the Federal Reserve. In Fort Bend County, income has grown by about 7% in the past decade compared to 15% for the nation and 21% for Texas. Fortunately, fewer people are living in poverty, but there are racial/ethnic disparities here as well. About one in 10 Black and one in 14 Hispanic residents in Fort Bend live in poverty compared to one in 20 white residents, according to data from the 2019 American Community Survey.
Fort Bend County is one of the most diverse and wealthy counties in the nation, but wealth has not grown meaningfully for all. This has wide-ranging implications contributing to gaps in housing affordability and health outcomes.
Residential Infrastructure and Health
Next, we heard from Chelsea Cheung, Senior Data and Learning Analyst. Cheung shared how the rising cost of housing has disproportionately impacted renters. She revealed how homeownership can be critical to wealth creation and upward mobility, as that wealth can be passed on to future generations. A higher percentage of Fort Bend County residents are homeowners compared to the state and nation; and while homeownership disparities exist by race and ethnicity in Fort Bend County, the disparities are smaller when compared to Texas and the U.S. However, median home values rose 62% between 2010 and 2019 in Fort Bend County, nearly double the national increase of 34%. For the same time period, the median monthly costs for homeowners with a mortgage increased by 4% compared to a 21% increase for renters. In Fort Bend County, nearly one in five renters spend more than half of their income on housing alone. For Fort Bend renters with stagnant wages who face soaring rents, the cost of achieving the American dream has increasingly become practically unachievable.
In Fort Bend County, nearly one in five renters spend more than half of their income on housing alone.
Cheung then addressed how where we live affects our environment and, by extension, our health and the health services available. Unfortunately, Texas has had the highest percentage of residents without health insurance in the United States for the last decade. In 2019, about 41,000 residents between the ages of 19 and 64 in Fort Bend County were uninsured, with one-third of Hispanic adults younger than 65 in Fort Bend being uninsured. In 2020, half of all deaths in Fort Bend were caused by heart disease, cancer, and COVID-19. In addition, in 2019, over 25% of Fort Bend County residents 18 and older reported no leisure-time physical activity in the past month, and over 15% rated their health as poor or fair. With more than a quarter of adult residents in Fort Bend County living with obesity, it is time to look at increasing access to and uptake of healthier options for residents.
Cheung then spoke about mental health and prenatal care. In Fort Bend County, the number of pregnant women who received early prenatal care declined 10 percentage points in just one year between 2020 and 2019, a decline not seen in Harris or Montgomery counties. In addition, Fort Bend County has the highest ratio of residents to mental health care providers in our three-county region and compared to the state and nation. This shortage of mental health providers is especially problematic because over one in 10 Fort Bend residents reported experiencing at least two weeks of poor mental health within a one-month period in 2019.
Identifying Community Priorities
The final speaker was Carrie Rai, Performance and Innovation Specialist from FBCHHS, who shared an overview of their recent Community Health Assessment. This Community Health Assessment is the first in Fort Bend County in 15 years. In addition to using data from various sources like Understanding Houston and local hospitals, they also collected their own data by conducting 25 key informant interviews and distributing 845 surveys to community residents.
Through their research, FBCHHS collected data on health outcomes related to health care, health behavior, social and community factors, and the physical and built environment. While they learned that Fort Bend County performs well in several areas, there were a few areas that were flagged as community priorities, including mental health, obesity, heart disease, housing affordability, and prenatal care access.
Mental Health
Rai shared that 37% of survey respondents had at least one day of poor mental health in the past month, and 46% indicated that mental health had been a problem within their households this past year. She also shared that suicide rates in Fort Bend County vary by race and ethnicity, with the highest rates of suicide being in the white population. These high rates of poor mental health are complicated by the shortage of mental health providers in Fort Bend County, as there is only one mental health provider for every 1,210 residents compared to a ratio of one mental health provider for every 760 Texans. Their data also showed that 14% of respondents needed mental health services but did not receive them. When asked why they did not receive mental health services, 34% said they could not afford to, and 27% said it took too long to receive services.
Obesity
While Fort Bend County has lower obesity rates than other counties in the region, it is still a top health issue, as nearly 30% of Fort Bend County residents are obese. In addition, results from the Community Health Assessment indicated that 40% of survey respondents were concerned with poor eating habits while 39% were concerned with lack of exercise. Only 8% of survey respondents are consuming enough fruits and vegetables, and 60% are not getting enough exercise.
Heart Disease
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Fort Bend County. Breaking it down by race/ethnicity, according to CDC WONDER, the Black or African American and white populations in Fort Bend County had the highest rates of deaths related to heart disease in 2020. Heart Disease was the fifth most cited health issue by survey respondents and key informants.
Housing Affordability
Housing in Fort Bend County is another area of focus due to affordability challenges. In 2022, County Health Rankings found that the Fair Market Rent (FMR) is $1,208 in Fort Bend County, whereas, across Texas, the average FMR is $1,172. In addition, 32% of survey respondents and 55% of key informants said that affordable housing is a resource/service that is missing in Fort Bend County.
Prenatal Care Access
The last priority issue Rai shared was about prenatal care, which has been viewed as a strategy to improve pregnancy outcomes for more than a century. Fort Bend County has higher rates of low birthweights than the national goals set by Healthy People 2020. In addition, in Fort Bend County, there has been a 10-percentage point drop in women who receive prenatal care from 2019 to 2020, and in that same time period, the percentage of pregnant women receiving no prenatal care in Fort Bend County increased more significantly compared to the state and the nation.
Paving a Path Forward
In closing, Rai shared how the data collected by FBCHHS reflects similar data to what was presented by Understanding Houston. She shared that as a health department, they share this information to get feedback on how the community should work together to address these priority issues.
Attendees then broke into smaller groups where members of the FBCHHS staff facilitated discussions. Each group picked one of the five priority topics to brainstorm solutions around. All discussions and data shared within each group were logged by an FBCHHS staff member. Information was also shared about ways different people or organizations can participate in addressing these priorities.
If you are interested in learning more about the data presented or attending an upcoming program, please contact understandinghouston@ghcf.org.
On September 21, 2022, Greater Houston Community Foundation hosted a program to celebrate the progress made in reducing homelessness in the Houston three-county area and explore how we can continue to work together to end homelessness in Houston.
Source: Coalition for the Homeless of Houston, Harris County, 2022 Homeless Count & Survey Results
Results from the 2022 Homeless Count Survey done by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston, indicate that since 2011, there has been a 64% reduction in the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Houston region, and in June 2015, homelessness among veterans was effectively ended. The Houston region’s successful collaborative approach to tackling this issue has received national recognition. It is a model for other cities as mayors and leaders from cities like Los Angeles and Denver want to learn from leaders in Houston.
Much of the region’s success can be attributed to The Way Home Houston, a collective effort to prevent and end homelessness in Houston and throughout Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties. With over 100 partners from all areas of the community, The Way Home Houston has created synergy to help the region achieve this transformation.
The event kicked off with Charmet Findley, a Houston native who serves as co-chair of the Youth Action Board of The Way Home Youth Homeless Demonstration Program. Findley faced many hardships while growing up in the foster care and juvenile criminal legal systems. He shared with us how he did not know how to secure housing or employment that would lay a solid foundation for stability and a career. Fortunately, Findley was resilient and found his way, but not everyone is this lucky. Findley uses his experiences to help bridge this gap and to serve as a mentor to youth currently involved in systems.
Curating a Coalition
We then heard from Sara Martinez, Vice President of Development at the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County. Martinez described the progress that our region has made in reducing homelessness by increasing collaboration among service providers and simplifying the path out of homelessness. Since July 2022, there has been a $165 million investment in the Community COVID Houston Program (CCHP), which focuses on providing permanent housing Houston with robust client support. As of August 2022, more than 10,000 people have been served by CCHP funding.
Source: Sara Martinez, Coalition for the Homeless presentation on September 21, 2022
Martinez also shared data on the strategy of moving people from encampments only if they had a place to go. Since this strategy was adopted, The Way Home partners have decommissioned 57 encampments, engaged 343 individuals, and housed 90% of the individuals they engaged. As the work continues to end homelessness in Houston, the Coalition will continue to prioritize increasing permanent housing, strengthening relationships with other systems to expand resources and keep people stably housed, and increasing advocacy around homelessness and related issues to improve the system’s impact.
Housing Affordability and Homelessness
Next, Luis Guajardo, Urban Policy Research Manager at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, who presented data on housing affordability in Houston. Guajardo explained that home ownership offers more than just refuge from the outside world. It also shapes our access to healthcare and career prospects and is the most relevant asset for wealth generation. Guajardo shared three themes that are clear through his research.
Source: Luis Guajardo, Kinder Institute for Urban Research presentation on September 21, 2022
Renters and homeowners face varying obstacles. From 2011 to 2021, there was a $100,000 increase in the gap between the price renters could afford and actual home prices. In addition, people who rent increasingly pay more of their income on housing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019, 20% of homeowners spent 30% or more of their annual income on housing, while 51% of renters spent 30% or more of their annual income on housing.
Source: Luis Guajardo, Kinder Institute for Urban Research presentation on September 21, 2022
The real estate market is not meeting the needs of low-income Houstonians, and public sector efforts are insufficient. Today, 500,000 households in Harris County have difficulty affording their homes. The public sector has not been able to offer enough support to offset market failures as there is a shortage of affordable homes available to lower-income households. In addition, according to Eviction Lab, Harris County is a national leader in evictions, with 36,448 eviction filings this year as of September 21. That equates to 1 in every 22 rental households in Harris County being faced with eviction filings.
Because of our region’s strong population and job growth, we are going to continue to need affordable housing, particularly for housing under 60% of Area Median Income (AMI). We already have massive supply shortages, and without significant investment and action, Houston’s affordable housing needs will worsen in the next 10 years if the market is not responsive.
Guajardo ended with recommendations to advance housing affordability. Harris County’s Housing Department aims to build more affordable housing over the next 10 years. Because of limited funding, it will take collaboration from all sectors (i.e., public, private, philanthropic, nonprofit, etc.). We need to plan for lasting housing affordability and availability to ensure we are not in the same predicament in three decades.
Panelist Discussion
The next portion of the program was a panel discussion moderated by Sara Martinez, where the audience was invited to submit specific questions for the panel. Below is a sample of the questions and the responses of our panelists. Responses have been edited for clarity.
Martinez: Considering the work that each of you do that intersects with homelessness, what is the biggest challenge that you see right now, at this moment?
Thao Costis: Funding is something that we all struggle with on the nonprofit side. Particularly because we work with people experiencing homelessness, we focus on housing and getting people off the streets with support, and they need the support for a long time. So sustainable funding is something that we continue to struggle with.
Leslie Bourne: One issue that my staff and I have the most concerns about is mental health. We used to say, about six years ago, we would say about 35% to 40% of our youth suffer from mental health issues. That’s more than double now. It is one of the main challenges we see among youth who experience homelessness.
Martinez: We know that a lot of adults experiencing homelessness cite an economic trigger as the precipitating event for their homelessness. What do you [Bourne] see with youth experiencing homelessness, what are their triggers?
Bourne: We see young adults subjected to human trafficking, who were in the foster care system, and are involved in the juvenile justice system, which tends to follow them throughout their life. At Covenant House, about 36% of our clients self-report involvement in the justice system. So, we work with youth coming out of the foster care system, the trauma of that, the trauma coming out of the justice system, and a lot of times that plays into being homeless.
Martinez: The 2022 Point-in-Time Count found that half of people who experience homelessness self-report serious mental illness and/or a substance abuse disorder. A national study states that people who have been incarcerated are 13 times more likely than the general public to experience homelessness. Can you elaborate on the intersection of these issues and what that looks like here in our region?
Wayne Young: There is this concept where people often accent mental illness in relation to where they see people in the homelessness system. They see these individuals in encampments and are homeless, and think “of course, they have a mental illness.”
There is the other population whose mental illness is what creates that spiral. They don’t recognize that they have a mental illness. Half of the people in this country who have a mental illness receive treatment in a given year. So, when you think about all the complexity that comes with being able to access mental health services, or not engaging in treatment — or treatment is not effective – the result is that people who experience homelessness and mental health challenges – but don’t get treatment – can tend to engage in advert behaviors that tend to cause them to lose jobs, get evicted, and lose their social support.
Martinez: We face so many challenges, how do you stay positive and maintain optimism?
Marc Eichenbaum: At the end of the day, it is the ethos of Houston. When we look at our city and how we rise to challenges. The reality is other cities don’t do this. Houston has the chutzpah to really dream big and turn dreams into reality.
The organizations up here aren’t saying “we are going to end homelessness” because it is a platitude or slogan, they say it because they really believe it. It is something I believe in because we have shown so much progress, and we are on the right path. We have this collective system with all the tools. We have this engine, and all that engine needs is a little gas — the resources — to really make sure that it [engine] goes.
Houston is big. The region’s size and all it encompasses has become an in-joke among residents — “Houston is an hour away from Houston,” the old saying goes. The city is sprawling, populous, industrial and growing. The reasons for the sprawl, rapid population growth and the breadth of successful industries are many and complex. We know that Houston is the 4th largest city in the U.S., but in what ways is Houston big other than in size and population? And how does Houston’s size affect its residents directly and indirectly?
Qualifying Houston’s “big-ness”
Understanding Houston provides data on Houston’s three-county region, but looking at the nine-county Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) — all of which many people consider “Houston” — can put into perspective the aggregate size of Houston and all of its satellite cities.
An MSA is the formal definition of a region linked by social and economic factors — the region where we live and work. The Houston MSA includes Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller counties — an area that spans 9,444 square miles and is larger than the states of Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Moreover, more than 100 cities and 40 unincorporated towns are within the Houston MSA boundaries, including Baytown, Fulshear, La Porte and Prairie View. If the Houston MSA were its own state, it would have the 15th largest population in the United States, with 7.2 million residents.
Even if one were to only consider Harris County, they would still be dealing with an area larger than many other “big” U.S. cities — its 1,778 square miles are enough to fit the cities of Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York City and Seattle and still have room to spare.
Sprawl contributes to longer-than-average commute times, food deserts
The old joke about Houston being an hour away from Houston largely stems from our many suburbs. Houston’s suburban communities offer many benefits for residents, including access to more affordable housing. However, the prominence of far-flung communities also carries consequences, including longer-than-average commute times and reduced investment in urban centers.
Commute times are a big challenge throughout Greater Houston. Many Houstonians face complications from urban traffic and congestion, construction, long distances and lack of public transport outside of the 610 Loop — sometimes all of the above.
Another reason Houston has long commute times is that we are less likely to carpool to work than the average American. Nearly 79% of workers in Houston’s three-county region commuted alone in 2017 compared to the national average of 76%, which helps explain why Houston’s commute times are still higher than the state and national average.
The emphasis on suburban sprawl can also contribute to the formation of food deserts in some of Houston’s urban areas. Food deserts are areas in which residents have a difficult time finding fresh and affordable food, like fruits and vegetables, due to a lack of grocery stores or a lack of affordable transportation to reach grocery stores with any regularity. Some Houston-area food deserts include Fifth Ward, Third Ward, Sunnyside and Acres Homes. Residents of food deserts without access to reliable and affordable transportation may resort to purchasing their food at nearby gas stations, dollar stores and fast food chains, which can result in higher rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
Greater Houston’s large and diverse population
It is a well-known fact that diversity is big in Houston. The city, which years ago was reported to be the most diverse place in America, is what many researchers believe to be an ethnographic snapshot of the future of America. The region is made up of more than two-thirds people of color, who accounted for 95% of Texas’s population growth over the last decade.
Hispanics/Latinos constitute the largest ethnic group in the region. Close to 2.4 million Hispanic residents accounted for nearly 39% of the region’s population in 2020, with 2 million of those residents representing Harris County alone. Among the 100 most populous counties in the nation, only 12 had higher percentages of Hispanic residents than Harris County. And our region’s Latino population continues to grow – increasing by 26% in the region between 2010 and 2020.
The three-county area is home to nearly half a million Asian Americans, with the largest two groups being Indian Americans (145,000 in 2020) and Vietnamese Americans (141,400 in 2020). These communities are big not just in the number of residents, but also in cultural and economic import. The Mahatma Gandhi District and Little Saigon are two economic and cultural hubs in which the city’s rich cultural heritage is preserved through community initiatives, small businesses and food.
Growing income gaps
Although Greater Houston’s diversity is often touted as a strength, quality of life in the region is not always equal. Income inequality is also big in Houston. Although counter-intuitive, an increase in average wealth over the last five decades has led to an increase in income inequality. American families in the top 90th percentile have seen their wealth increase five-fold, while the bottom 10% of earners have gone from having no accumulated wealth to being about $1,000 in debt.
Income inequality has also increased in the Houston region, where pay gaps are also significant — and some growing — along gender and ethnic/racial lines. Median earnings between different groups are one way to measure pay gaps. Across both the U.S. and Texas in 2017, full-time, year-round male workers made about $10,000 more per year than their female counterparts. While the pay gap in Harris County (at about $7,500) is smaller than in the state and nation, it is significantly larger in Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties, with women earning $15,137 and $20,555 less, respectively.
The pay gap between Black and white workers has widened since the 1970s in the U.S. Black workers are the only racial group to experience declining median earnings nationally between 2010 and 2017. The Black-white pay gap has remained flat in Texas and grown worse in Montgomery County. The largest racial/ethnic pay gap in Texas is among Hispanic workers, who earned just 60 cents for every dollar a white worker made in 2017.
Big institutions
Physical size aside, Greater Houston has several large institutions that shape life throughout the region. In addition to our beloved food and music cultures, Houston is recognized globally for its expansive arts community and its world-renowned medical center.
Greater Houston’s art scene is a staple of the region. Stretching from the echoing halls of major institutions in the Museum and Theater District, to the neighborhood murals and the many festivals and installations. Houston has over 550 nonprofit institutions devoted to the arts and sciences that support the equivalent of 25,817 full-time jobs and generated over $1.1 billion in total economic activity in 2017. Understanding Houston has previously discussed the prolific Houston Theater District spanning 17 city blocks, and the 19 world-class museums available in Houston’s Museum District.
Houston is also known for the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest healthcare complex and life sciences destination. In the Med Center are M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the number one cancer center in the U.S., as well as Texas Children’s Hospital, the second-ranked children’s hospital in the country.
Big challenges, big opportunities
Houston is big, but we are still one community despite our size. Making the most of the qualities that help Houston thrive requires thinking with the big picture in mind. Lack of public transit near Fulshear contributes to longer commutes near Downtown. Pay gaps between workers in Greenway impact small business health in Humble. We may call different counties home, but at the end of the day, we are all Houstonians, and what matters to some of us ultimately matters to all of us.
Over the years, the greater Houston region has gained a reputation for affordability. Historically, Greater Houston is the rare major metro in which the cost of living is low and overall opportunity is high, especially relative to its size as the fifth largest metropolitan area and the fourth largest city in the nation.
Our region’s affordability is one of the main reasons the nine-county Houston metropolitan area’s population grew at the fastest rate in the last decade (18.8% between 2010 and 2019) compared with the 20 most populous metros in the nation. More recently, the hot real estate market, soaring gas and energy prices, and 40-year high inflation rates threaten that reputation.
Rising home and transportation costs and the widening affordability gap
Housing market prices and sales have soared in Greater Houston, like much of the country, to a level that many experts believe is untenable. According to research from Greater Houston Partnership, the median price of a single-family home in the nine-county Houston Metropolitan Area has increased nearly 45% over the past four years and 14.5% in just the first six months of this year alone. If folks can’t purchase homes, they need to rent, but that option has offered little relief as rent prices are up nearly 20% since 2020, according to the Partnership’s analysis of Apartment Data Services data.
The median price of a single-family home has increased by nearly 45% over the past four years.
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies estimates that some four million renters nationwide were effectively priced out of buying a home due to rising interest rates from April 2021 to April 2022.
According to the 2022 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston report, the affordability gap for renters in Harris County in 2011 was $35,000. The affordability gap is the difference between what median-income households can afford and the median house price and an indication of how much housing has gone up relative to earnings. Ten years later, the affordability gap for renters has nearly quadrupled to $135,500, with 38% of that growth from 2020 to 2021 alone. According to the report, current homeowners in Harris County do not face an affordability gap — they were able to purchase a home at the median sales price with their median household income. However, homeownership may remain only a dream for would-be-first-time buyers due to increasing costs and the widening affordability gap.
There is more to housing affordability than how much mortgage or rent you pay. Typically, families would move out to the suburbs for relatively less expensive housing, but, in a region like ours where people have historically commuted into the city, that usually means their transportation costs go up.
The Location Affordability Index estimates the percentage of a household’s income spent on housing and transportation costs in a given location. According to the latest data from 2017, households in Harris County spent about 27% of their income on housing and an additional 21% on transportation, comprising nearly half of a family’s income. Comparatively, residents of Fort Bend and Montgomery counties spend more of their income on transportation than residents of Harris County.
In 2017, households in Harris County spent about 27% of their income on housing and an additional 21% on transportation.
This is due in part to the fact that we commute alone to work in our private vehicles at higher rates than other metro areas and spend more time in traffic. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Houstonians spent an average of 49 extra hours in traffic in 2020 — the third worst in the country. These delays cost each of us about $1,100 a year in fuel costs and lost time, according to the 2021 Urban Mobility report from Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
Ideally, instead of treating them as two independent issues, affordable housing and access to transportation should be aligned. LINK Houston and Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research developed the Quality Affordable Transportation Index (QATi) to map areas of quality, affordable transportation and housing. LINK Houston’s Where Affordable Housing and Transportation Meet in Houston report found that 44% of rental units in Houston are affordable to moderate-income households (defined as a family of four spending no more than $1,907 per month on housing plus utilities), and only one-third of these rental units are near high-quality, affordable transportation.
Source: LINK Houston, Affordable Housing and Transportation Data
Inequities in housing affordability
Of course, the decision to buy a home depends on more than its purchase price. There are additional costs to consider like mortgage terms (including interest rates), insurance and taxes. Part of the reason homeownership remains out of reach for many people of color is because of historic and current discriminatory policies and practices.
Banks deny home loans from Houston-area Hispanic and Black applicants at about four times the rate of white applicants. In 2020, banks denied home loans to 25% of Black and 23% of Hispanic applicants compared with 8% of white applicants, according to the Kinder Institute’s 2022 State of Housing report.
Further, among those who were approved for a home loan, Hispanic and Black applicants were given higher interest rates, higher loan-to-value ratios, longer loan terms and were far more likely to be heavily debt-burdened borrowers.
In 2020, banks denied Houston-area home loans to 25% of Black and 23% of Hispanic applicants compared with 8% of white applicants.
Despite declining homeownership rates and the challenges they face in the housing market, Hispanic homeowners were the only racial/ethnic group with a growing homeownership rate both in the U.S. and Houston between 2020 and 2021. Hispanic residents will soon become the largest share of homebuyers in the country.
We observe inequity in the housing market not only in loan denials or predatory mortgages for lower-value properties, but also in foreclosures. According to the Kinder Institute’s 2022 State of Housing report, foreclosures in the three-county area were disproportionately higher in suburban communities of color. Within Harris County, each of the 10 census tracts with the highest foreclosure rates consisted of majority people of color. The report states that these particularly high foreclosure rates are likely correlated with the unfavorable mortgage terms banks typically offer these communities.
Energy costs in Houston are rising, but remain lower than national averages
If the cost of housing is the first thing that comes to mind when discussing a region’s affordability, the cost of energy is likely the second. While Texans pay some of the lowest rates in the country per kilowatt hour for energy, consumption drives electric bills high.
Because Texans endure extreme heat in the summer and cold temperatures in the winter, most Texans keep their climate control pumping year-round. Average monthly consumption in Texas is consistently among the highest in the country — in 2020, energy bills in Texas were the sixth-highest in the nation, despite paying less per kilowatt hour than 31 other states, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In keeping with the reasonable prices for energy in the region, gas prices in Houston are also relatively low — averaging about 7% lower than the national rate over the last decade. In 2021 the average price for retail gas in the country was $2.91 per gallon, compared to $2.66 in Texas, representing an 8% price break. Despite the recent surge in prices, gas in Texas is consistently cheaper than the national average. At its peak this year in June 2022 the average retail price for a gallon of gasoline in Texas was $4.58, 4% lower than the national average, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Inflation’s impact in Houston
Inflation is on the mind for many in the country right now, and for good reason. Inflation rates in the U.S. and in Houston are at their highest since December 1981.
Inflation rose to 9.1% nationwide, according to the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U), in the twelve months ending June 2022. But the inflation rate for the Houston Metropolitan Area rose even more during that time, 10.2%. Houston’s higher rate suggests stronger demand and a hotter economy compared to the nation as a whole, according to Greater Houston Partnership analysis.
Living costs in Houston are 8.3% below the national average, and 36.2% lower than the average of the 20 most populous U.S. metros.
The most recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed only moderate increases in housing costs in the region, suggesting that the true increase in Houston’s housing costs has yet to be fully reflected in the Consumer Price Index, and the real rise in inflation could be higher than what has been reported.
Retrieved from Greater Houston Partnership, Monthly Update: Inflation, June 2022
Despite inflation increasing at a slightly faster rate than the national average, Houston still has the second-lowest cost of living among the 20 most populous metropolitan areas in the United States, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research’s Cost of Living Index from Q1 of 2022. Living costs in Houston are 8.3% below the national average, and 36.2% lower than the average of the 20 most populous U.S. metros.
Houston’s affordability is being redefined
As the entire country becomes less affordable, so does Greater Houston. However, even as inflation continues to rise, the region’s cost of living remains relatively low when compared to other major metros and the quality of life Houstonians enjoy, including the arts and cultural amenities of a world-class city. However, historic inequities and recent events have threatened this reputation, and the region will never truly be affordable for all until our region’s prosperity provides opportunity for all.
Texas has seen three times the number of family violence deaths since 2017 with rates of family violence increasing across all three counties
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse or intimate partner violence (IPV), is a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. According to the 2010 CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner which equates to more than 10 million individuals every year in the U.S.1 And while this data is dated, local indicators point to an increase in domestic violence since 2010 – particularly during the pandemic.
20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner
Domestic violence not only impacts the individuals directly involved, but also is a substantial public health problem. The National Center for Injury Prevention estimates the cost of intimate partner rape, physical assault, and stalking exceeds $5.8 billion each year — nearly $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services.2
Domestic violence can occur in a number of intimate relationships such as parent-child, grandparent-grandchild, siblings, ex- or current spouses, individuals who live together, and current or former dating couples. The majority of individuals who report experiencing rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner experienced some form of intimate partner violence for the first time before they were 25.3
To be clear, there is no perfect study or data set that accurately illustrates the prevalence of domestic violence, as cases are often undercounted in official records — the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that only half of domestic violence cases are actually reported to the police.4
The 2021 Harris County Health and Relationship study conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch and Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council found that of their survey participants impacted by domestic violence and who reached out for help, the majority sought help from a friend or family member.5
As Houstonians, we should seek to understand, as best we can, what domestic violence is, the many forms it can take, who it may be impacting in our community, and the barriers many individuals face when reporting abuse and seeking assistance. The more we understand about domestic violence in our region, the more we can do, together, to ensure the necessary support is provided to survivors.
“It is not the victim’s fault – STOP victim blaming. We all need to hold the offender accountable. Change the question from ‘Why doesn’t the victim leave?’ to ‘Why does the offender abuse?”
Amy Smith, Sr. Director of Operations and Communications for Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council
A note about terminology
The words we use to describe an individual or situation have meaning and can be powerful.
When tracking the data for any issue area, using common language can be advantageous because it allows all individuals and organizations to be on the same page, creating a mutual understanding of the terms and what is being discussed. However, there is not one set of words that fits all individuals and circumstances.
When referring to an individual who has experienced domestic violence, the word “victim” is often used by members of law enforcement and within the context of courtroom proceedings, but nonprofits tend to use the term “survivor” to provide a sense of empowerment.
In this case, Understanding Houston used data from the Texas Department of Public Safety and matches the language they use when collecting and reporting data, which is the term “victim.”
Forms of Domestic Violence
Often, when people think about domestic violence, they think in terms of physical assault that results in visible injuries to the victim. However, this is only one type of abuse and there are several other categories of abusive behavior.
Control: This can include monitoring phone calls, not allowing freedom of choice, and invading someone’s privacy by not allowing them time and space of their own.
Physical Abuse: Which can include hitting, punching, slapping, biting, etc., but can also include strangulation, withholding of physical needs, injuring or threatening to injure others like children or pets, and hitting, kicking, or throwing inanimate objects during an argument.
Sexual Abuse: Such as exploiting an individual who is unable to make an informed decision about involvement in sexual activity, laughing or making fun of another’s sexuality or body, and making contact with the victim in any nonconsensual way.
Emotional Abuse & Intimidation: Continuous degradation, intimidation, manipulation, brainwashing, or control of another.
Isolation: By keeping the victim socially isolated the batterer is keeping the victim from contact with the world. By keeping the victim from seeing who they want to see, doing what they want to do, and controlling how the victim thinks and feels they are isolating the victim from the resources which may help them leave the relationship.
Verbal Abuse: Coercion, threats, and blame such as threatening to hurt or kill the victim their children, a family member or even themselves, name calling, yelling, screaming, rampaging, or terrorizing.
Economic Abuse: This can include controlling the family income, making them turn their paycheck over, or causing them to lose a job or preventing them from taking a job, which can make it even more difficult for an individual to leave an abusive relationship as the batterer keeps them from having the necessary financial resources to support themselves.
According to a report from the Texas Council on Family Violence, in 70% of cases, Texas domestic violence offenders abuse the same victim again, even after a warning from authorities or after a protective order was issued6 and many organizations who work in this area agree that the violence almost always escalates over time.
Rates of family violence increased across all three counties in 2020
The annual rate of reported family violence incidents was consistently higher in Harris County compared to Fort Bend and Montgomery counties between 2010 and 2021.
Across all three counties and the state, reported family violence incidents increased between 2019 and 2020 with Harris County seeing an over 28% increase.
Some of this increase was likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic which exacerbated stressors in violent households and/or relationships, thus increasing the frequency and/or severity of domestic violence.
Indeed, the 2021 Harris County Health and Relationship Study found that of their survey participants impacted by domestic violence, almost 52% reported an increase since the COVID-19 pandemic began and about 6% reported that physical violence began during COVID-19.7
Research has also shown that economic hardship can increase the rate of domestic violence incidents,8,9 with one study finding a 30% increased chance of male perpetrated violence linked to job loss, suggesting that the loss of income can create stress within the household and lead to more time at home, which increases a victim’s exposure to abusive behavior.10
The number of family violence related deaths has increased dramatically since 2017
In 2021, Texas saw the highest number of family violence related deaths in recent history. However, the number of deaths related to family violence had been increasing steadily across the state since 2017 which, according to the Texas Council on Family Violence, could be due to Hurricane Harvey, increased homicide rates overall, and/or a higher prevalence of firearms.
Compared to 2017, Texas experienced nearly three times the deaths in 2021, 529 deaths in 2021 compared to 186 deaths in 2017.
Hurricane Harvey: Studies show that rates of violence can increase in the wake of a natural disaster due to increased mental distress and anger as well as limited capacity of safe houses due to increased demands from the affected community or damage caused to the building by the disaster.11,12
Homicide Rates: Previous reports from the Texas Council on Family Violence have shown that when general homicides increase overall, lethal violence by intimate partners also show a significant raise.
Abusers with access to a firearm are more likely to take their partner’s life. Some studies say that owning a firearm makes an abuser five times more likely to take a partner’s life and that domestic violence incidents involving a gun are 12 times more likely to result in death compared to incidents involving other weapons or bodily force.13,14
“Leaving an abuser is the most dangerous time for a victim of domestic violence…Survivors often stay because of the reality that their abuser will follow through with threats to hurt or kill them, hurt or kill the kids, or harm or kill pets or others.”
Rachna Khare, Executive Director for Daya Houston
Texas prohibits people convicted of some domestic violence misdemeanors from possessing firearms for five years following their release from confinement or community supervision. This penalty does not generally apply to people convicted of threatening a family or household member with imminent violent injury or to people convicted of violent assaults against a current or former dating partner, known as the “boyfriend loophole.” However, with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act on June 25, 2022, people who are convicted of domestic violence (against a current or recent former dating partner) will now be prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm for at least five years.
The majority of reported family violence cases occur between “other family members”
Because domestic violence perpetrators are often close to their victims, it is difficult for the abused individual to reconcile that they are being harmed and, once they do, victims face a number of fears and stigmas when reporting the abuse and receiving assistance, which can deter many people from reporting their abuse. Some of the reasons domestic violence is frequently unreported include:
Fear of the abuser due to threats and ongoing violence
Custody issues, shared finances or financial instability
Living arrangements
Judgment/disbelief/blame from friends, family, or community members
Across Texas in 2020, the largest share of family violence incidents reported to the police occurred between the victim and an offender marked as an “other family member,” which can include aunts, uncles, or cousins. The second most common type of relationship was spousal, which impacts not only the spouse suffering abuse but children in the household as well. A boy who sees his mother being abused is 10 times more likely to abuse his female partner as an adult and a girl is six times more likely to be sexually abused compared to a girl who grows up in a non-abusive home.15
However, the information being collected depends on the person collecting the data and their interaction with the individual making the report. For example, for this data set, information is collected by local law enforcement and then reported up to the Texas Department of Public Safety for analysis and publishing.
If an individual does not feel comfortable disclosing certain details about themselves, how they identify, and/or their relationship with the abuser to police, then the information reported is not completely accurate. In other instances, how the individual identifies or how the relationship is defined may not be a specific option that is collected on a form so those instances could fall under a broad “Other Family Member” category.
This data set shows that in 2020 across Texas there were 261 reported incidents of family violence where the individuals involved were in a same-sex relationship. However, this does not mean that domestic violence in same-sex relationships is less prevalent than in heterosexual relationships. In fact, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports that within the LGBTQ+ community, intimate partner violence occurs at a rate equal to or even higher than that of the heterosexual community and that transgender individuals may suffer from an even greater burden of intimate partner violence than gay or lesbian individuals.
Domestic violence in the LGBTQ+ population is likely to be underreported due to unique barriers faced such as the dangers associated with “outing” oneself, potential homophobia from police and/or service providers, or the lack of, or survivors being unaware of, LGBTQ+-friendly assistance resources.
A boy who sees his mother being abused is 10 times more likely to abuse his female partner as an adult.
Nearly three-quarters of reported incidents of family violence had a female victim
It is estimated that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men in the U.S. experience severe intimate partner physical violence, contact sexual violence, and/or stalking.16
In Texas in 2020, there were over twice as many family violence incidents reported where women or girls were the victim than incidents where men or boys were the victim. However, the National Domestic Violence Hotline reports that there are likely many more men who do not report or seek help for their abuse due to many barriers including men being socialized not to express their feelings or see themselves as victims, pervading beliefs or stereotypes about men being abusers and women being victims, the abuse of men often being treated as less serious or a joke, and the belief that there are no resources or support available for male victims.
A disproportionate number of reported family violence incidents are for Black and white Texans
In 2020, the percentage of reported family violence cases for Black and white Texans was higher than those demographics percentages of the population across the state. White Texans in particular comprised 50% of all reported family violence cases. Black Texans make up about 12% of the population but compromise 21% of reported family violence incidents.
However, these numbers are not a perfect representation of family violence as they only represent incidents that are reported to authorities and certain populations are less likely to report.
In the United States, limited English proficiency is one of the obstacles individuals can face when reporting domestic violence. While all survivors and victims of domestic violence can encounter difficulties when reporting abuse, according to the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, those with limited English proficiency face additional challenges such as: being seen as uneducated, helpless, or resistant to acculturation or learning English; not being provided adequate language services; and/or an abuser who speaks English deliberately misrepresenting or falsifying facts to first responders or law enforcement claiming that they were assaulted leading to the arrest of the real victim.
Moreover, across Houston’s immigrant communities, victims face barriers related to language access, cultural taboos, immigration status, cultural mismatches with mainstream agencies, violence from extended family systems, and a lack of knowledge of their legal rights and protective options. As a result, domestic and sexual violence is underreported and underestimated in these communities.
Along with language barriers, culture can also impact an individual’s likelihood of seeking assistance when experiencing abuse from someone they have a personal relationship with. The Urban Institute points to research shedding light on underreporting of domestic violence in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community which shows that deeply internalized patriarchal values could contribute to minimization and underreporting and cultural values of prioritizing family and community over individuals can lead this population avoiding talking about their domestic violence experiences. One study shows that one of the most common barriers to reporting violence Asian American and Pacific Islander women cite is fear of bringing shame on their family.
Additionally, the Women of Color Network reports within the context of a particular community of color, common factors and considerations exist which may account for underreporting of domestic violence by women of color. They include:
Cultural norms and/or religious beliefs that restrain the survivor from leaving the abusive relationship or involving outsiders.
Distrust of law enforcement, criminal justice systems, and social services.
Lack of service providers that look like the survivor or share common experiences.
Lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate services.
Lack of trust based on the history of racism and classism in the United States.
Fear that these experiences will reflect on, or confirm, the stereotypes placed on their ethnicity.
Attitudes and stereotypes about the prevalence of domestic violence and sexual assault in communities of color.
Legal status in the US of the survivor and/or the batterer.
Oppression, including re-victimization, is intensified at the intersections of race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, legal status, age and socioeconomic status.
“By fleeing, a survivor ends a cycle of violence. As survivors take this dangerous and difficult step, we must demand societal norms that uphold equality, respect, and safety in all relationships, in good times and bad. This should not be an idealistic goal, it should be the bare minimum.”
Rachna Khare, Executive Director for Daya Houston
Resources
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, several resources are available to assist and answer any questions you may have, including but not limited to.
One of the biggest barriers survivors face to reporting, leaving, or recovering from an abusive relationship is the lack of means to support themselves and/or their children financially or lack of access to cash, bank accounts, or assets. Safe, secure, and affordable housing remains a critical need in order for survivors to flee. As we work to end domestic violence, it is imperative that housing programs and nonprofit organizations that serve survivors have access to flexible funds.
Consider donating to, or volunteering with, any one of these organizations who provide housing, financial assistance, legal representation, counseling, advocacy and a number of other services to domestic violence survivors in our community.
“Getting rental assistance has been one of the most important parts of my life, and it was a turning point. When I first held my keys [to our new home], I cried tears of joy. It was life-saving. The kids were so excited to be able to say they finally had their own place. To this day, my youngest son who was eight years old has the exact date and time memorized for when we first moved into our apartment. If Daya had not helped me and my family with housing, I have no idea how my life would have turned out.”
Anonymous Survivor from Daya Houston
Learn More
If you’d like to learn more, the following organizations provide educational resources.
1 National Center for Injury Prevention. “National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2010 Summary Report.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf
9 Medel-Herrero, Alvaro et al. “The impact of the Great Recession on California domestic violence events, and related hospitalizations and emergency service visits.” Preventive Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7315959/
11 Gearhart, Sara et al. “The Impact of Natural Disasters on Domestic Violence: An Analysis of Reports of Simple Assault in Florida (1999-2007).” Violence and Gender. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/vio.2017.0077
15 Vargas, L. Cataldo, J., Dickson, S. (2005). Domestic Violence and Children . In G.R. Walz & R.K. Yep (Eds.), VISTAS: Compelling Perspectives on Counseling. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association; 67-69.
