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 Houston population (the nine-county Houston metropolitan area) grew at the fastest rate in the last decade (18.8% between 2010 and 2019) among the 20 most populous metros in the nation. That reputation for affordability may be threatened by the hot real estate market, soaring gas and energy prices, and 40-year high inflation rates, begging the question: is Houston affordable, still?
Rising home and transportation costs and the widening affordability gap
Prices and sales have soared in the Greater Houston housing market, 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.
Continue reading about housing issues such as evictions and homelessness in Houston
Energy costs in Houston are rising, but remain lower than national averages
In Houston, housing costs immediately come to mind when discussing our region’s affordability; the cost of energy likely follows. While Texans pay some of the lowest rates in the country per kilowatt hour for energy, consumption drives electric bills high.
Those of us who have experienced the sweltering Houston heat, and surprisingly cold Texas winters, know that 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 on the Houston economy
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
So, is Houston a low cost of living city? Despite inflation increasing at a slightly faster rate than the national average, the cost of living in Houston is still the second-lowest 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.
Greater Houston Community Foundation hosted a program on July 20, 2022, to convene experts, researchers and practitioners around the increasingly severe mental health crisis affecting children and adolescents.
The program began with a brief data presentation from Understanding Houston, to set the stage for the deeper dives from guest speakers that would follow. The convening featured presentations from the following experts:
We explored data and different approaches, which included ways to improve child resilience; treat children who are coping with trauma and grief; identify and serve children in both school and community settings; and the various policy and legislative issues that influence the workforce, funding and efficacy in the mental health space. We have provided a few critical insights below, and we invite you to watch the event here.
Concurrent and consecutive disasters and events have battered our mental health
The past couple of years have been tough on most of us, but research and studies have shown that this time has been especially difficult for children. Not only due to having to navigate an entirely new way of living caused by a pandemic but also because of several successive, traumatic events in recent years. These events, combined with 24/7 news cycles and social media, can contribute to increased feelings of anxiety and unhappiness. However, the data indicates that things weren’t so great even before 2020.
In roughly the last decade from 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from about a quarter to nearly half, which is the highest level of teenage sadness on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But kids are not only struggling with feelings of anxiety and depression brought on by traumatic events. They are also grieving — more than 215,000 children nationally have lost a parent or caregiver who died as a result of COVID-19. Dr. Julie Kaplow, Executive Director of the Trauma and Grief Center at The Hackett Center for Mental Health, calls this the “silent epidemic of childhood trauma and grief.” She emphasizes “silent” because trauma and grief symptoms in children can be disguised which reduces the likelihood of receiving treatment.
Community-based organizations that work to identify and treat mental and behavioral health challenges in children in school settings or otherwise, have been seeing this with their clients for a few years. As Shubhra Endley, Director of Mental Health and Wellness at Communities in Schools of Houston, noted, “We had barely wrapped up our mental health support we were doing in response to [Hurricane] Harvey, and we are now having to deal with housing instability, food instability — because of jobs that got cut during the pandemic — and it’s all impacting the well-being of our students.” Heads around the room nodded in agreement.
Jessica Cisneros, Chief Clinical Officer at Family Houston, noted that it is one thing to identify students in need and offer help, and it is another issue entirely for a family/child to accept support. She notes the historically lower uptake rates among Latinos. Similarly, a survey from Episcopal Health Foundation and Kaiser Family Foundation found that Latinos were the least likely to receive mental health treatment after experiencing negative effects on mental health from Hurricane Harvey compared with Black and white residents.
Aside from the typically lower insured rates among this demographic, cultural norms within the broader Hispanic community can stigmatize mental health treatment. But, that tendency could be reversing. Cisneros shared, “In the Latino community, we have seen a greater focus in reducing stigma by introducing psychotherapists on Spanish-speaking networks,” and she has seen positive results.
There is a clear need for mental and behavioral treatment and therapy. But even if everyone who needs and wants help seeks it out, how available and accessible is treatment?
A local mental and behavioral health provider workforce shortage is exacerbating treatment challenges
Texas ranks last among states in mental health care access according to Mental Health America’s 2022 State of Mental Health report. And, residents in our three-county region have even less access to mental health treatment than the state average. Fort Bend County has the least amount of access to mental health treatment with only one mental health provider for roughly every 1,200 residents.
These numbers cover mental health professionals for all ages, but if we look at the availability of child and adolescent clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, the numbers get worse. According to data from the American Psychological Association, out of the 100,000 U.S. clinical psychologists, only 4% are trained child and adolescent clinicians. Fort Bend, Harris and Montgomery counties all have a severe shortage of practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists.
A Houston Chronicle analysis of staffing at 1,200 school districts in Texas found that many school districts do not meet the recommended ratios for these positions.
4 districts met the recommendation for social workers
24 districts for counselors
25 districts for psychologists
398 districts for nursing staff
Andrea Usanga, Executive Director of Network of Behavioral Health Providers, works to increase the provider workforce through education and advocacy. She has been sounding the alarm for over a decade.
In 2009, Usanga testified before the Texas legislature on the mental and behavioral workforce shortage — at the time, about one-third of the counties in the state did not have the designation of partial or total Mental Health Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). Now, only one county of the 254 does not have a shortage. She urges action, “If we don’t start getting people in [the mental and behavioral health workforce] pipeline to be able to address these issues down the line, we are going to be in even bigger trouble.” Jessica Cisneros shared that Family Houston has also lost a significant number of staff during the pandemic’s peak which has made it harder to treat anyone who seeks help.
We need to do more to prevent challenges from snowballing and giving kids the tools they need to build resilience
Usanga noted in her remarks, “At the exact time we are seeing increases…our available professional supply is going down.” So, how will everyone get the help they need? As Marcy Melvin, Deputy Director of The Hackett Center for Mental Health, implored at the beginning of her talk, we need to “… reimagine how we think about, talk about and define mental health treatment.”
Preventing mental health disorders and building resilience in children to cope with life challenges should be a priority now, Melvin declares. “We are never going to get to the point where we have enough practitioners to meet all of the needs of youth…We can’t stop bad things from happening, but what we can do is build the capacity so that when trauma, hard things happen, we have children and youth who have the capacity to be able to manage and get through those situations.”
Melvin encourages all of us to engage in conversation, lean into community and equip children and youth with the tools they will need to successfully navigate future challenges. The Hackett Center promotes early childhood education as instrumental in that effort. Since a child’s brain is still forming and developing rapidly at that stage, integrating these tools early will build solid brain formation to help children manage stressors effectively. This preventative and resilient approach, particularly when implemented in early years, potentially avoids worsened feelings of hopelessness that can feel insurmountable when we don’t know how to cope.
Residents of the three-county region are no strangers to Houston’s heat
We all know that Houston is hot. How quickly is Houston getting hotter and why? And what — aside from making us sweat — are the implications of the region’s excessive heat?
The rising heat foreshadows many distressing possibilities as it relates to climate change, as well as less obvious public health and economic impacts. Extreme heat in particular already kills more Americans every year than any other weather-related disaster.
With eight federally declared disasters in the last decade alone, a deadly winter storm in 2021, and consecutive record-setting summers, many of us feel we are already living with extreme weather. The region is currently experiencing its most severe early summer drought conditions in nearly a decade, and Houston is coming off of the hottest June in its history. The data surrounding the rising heat and the populations most affected by it can tell us a little more about both why Houston is hot and why it matters.
How hot is “hotter,” exactly?
Members of the Houston population who have been here a while are acclimated to Houston’s summer heat as much as one can be, although the prospect of it getting hotter surely isn’t welcomed by anyone. To answer the important qualifier of how Houston is getting hotter, we look to climate normals.
Climate normals, provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA), are 30-year averages for climate and weather variations like temperature and precipitation. Because of the 30-year period over which they are recorded, climate normals provide a more clear picture of how our weather changes than annual variances do.
The Climate Normals published by NOAA in May 2021 (with data representing 1991–2020) show that, compared to the previous 30-year average (1981–2010), average temperatures in the Houston region went up by between 0.6 to 1.0 degrees Fahrenheit, and annual rainfall increased by around two inches.
The region has already experienced a significant uptick in the number of days of extreme heat, which is defined by the CDC as days with temperatures of 95 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter. In fact, Montgomery County experienced 231 more days of extreme heat in the 2010s than it did in the previous decade — that is almost two-thirds of a year of added extreme heat over the last decade. Additionally, Harris County saw the number of days of extreme heat almost double over the same period, from 233 to 436.
Montgomery County experienced 231 more days of extreme heat in the 2010s than it did in the previous decade.
How hot could Houston’s weather get?
According to data from the Office of the Texas State Climatologist, the projected average temperature in Texas in the year 2036 is 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1991–2020 average, and 3.0 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1950–1999 average. They also project that the number of days in which temperatures reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the year 2036, will be nearly double the average rate for 2001–2020 in concentrated urban areas.
Long-term projections predict a story of longer summers, longer Houston heat waves and less rainfall. While, according to the Resilience Science Information Network (RESIN), average annual precipitation amounts are not projected to change significantly, the season in which the precipitation occurs is. Essentially, when it does rain, it is expected to be more intense, but there is also the possibility of longer droughts. It is important to note that although the number of hurricanes the region will face is not expected to rise, the strength of the hurricanes that do make landfall is. RESIN warns that a decline in rainfall, combined with extended summers and heatwaves, could have a serious impact on social vulnerability, critical infrastructure and natural habitats.
Projecting what Houston weather could look like in the future can be tricky, and doubt has been cast about the ability of climate models to accurately predict changes in temperature and precipitation. Research tells us, however, that climate projections tend to be pretty accurate. For example, a 2020 NASA study compared 17 climate model projections of average global temperature that were developed between 1970 and 2007 with actual changes in global temperature. Ten of the 17 models were spot on while the other seven were off by about 0.1 degree Celsius per decade. The researchers found that there was no evidence that these climate models have historically over or underestimated the impact of rising temperatures. Given today’s advanced technology and climate models, researchers express confidence that current scientists are skillfully predicting the impact of global warming.
The Houston heat impacts some more than others
Houston’s heat doesn’t affect everyone equally. Temperatures often vary by neighborhoods within the same city, where built infrastructure like bridges, parking lots and buildings contribute to pockets of heat known as “heat islands.” Heat islands are most likely to occur in urban areas, where there is too much concrete and too few trees to alleviate the heat. Concrete and pavement retain heat during the day and radiates it back throughout the evening, which keeps the surrounding area hotter for longer. We can feel the difference between walking across a vast parking lot on a steamy July afternoon compared to walking down a street with trees that meet in the middle.
Heat islands are the greatest driver of heat-related health issues according to Houston Harris Heat Action Team. These heat islands can result in daytime temperatures in urban areas 1–7 degrees Fahrenheit higher than temperatures in outlying areas, and nighttime temperatures 2–5 degrees higher.
Source: Houston Harris Heat Action Team
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), temperature extremes can worsen chronic cardiovascular, respiratory and diabetes-related conditions, and even small changes in seasonal average temperatures are associated with increases in illnesses and death. Extreme heat already kills more Americans every year than any other weather-related disaster, and WHO reports that extreme heat events are only increasing in frequency, duration and magnitude.
Extreme weather may hurt our economy
The greater Houston region has already witnessed how extreme weather can affect our local economy. In 2017, when Hurricane Harvey inundated our region over several days, nearly all businesses were forced to shut down for a period of time because it was simply impossible to get anywhere. Much of the storm’s cost, estimated at $125 billion, is attributed to interruptions in business and employee displacement.
More recently, when Winter Storm Uri surprised the region in February 2021, power outages were rampant throughout the state and burst pipes damaged thousands of businesses and homes. These impacts to the Houston economy are estimated at $130 billion.
Globally, researchers estimate that rising temperatures could reduce crop yields by 30–46% before the end of the century under the slowest (B1) climate warming scenario and 63–82% under the most rapid (A1B) scenario, which would threaten our global food supply. It isn’t just national crops and higher electricity bills; extreme weather puts incalculable stress on local communities.
In Houston, heat isn’t going away
Houstonians are already enduring the effects of excessive heat, but those risk factors will only become more acute as climate change continues to affect the region, and our region’s most vulnerable residents will bear the brunt of the harm.
How do you deal with heat in Houston? A few reminders as we get through the hottest time of the year:
Houston is getting hotter, and we should prepare for heat and for a future of weather extremes that could repeatedly test the fabric of our region. Our continued ability to grow and prosper may depend on it.
Why diversity and inclusion matter and what they truly mean in Greater Houston
It’s no secret that Houston is diverse. The region was recognized for its multiculturalism long before it was reported to be the most racially/ethnically diverse place in the nation. We typically measure diversity in terms of race or ethnicity, but it is also defined as diversity in backgrounds, perspectives, insights, and lived experiences, and Greater Houston is diverse in many ways that often go unnoticed.
But why does diversity matter? Research suggests that companies composed of people with diverse experiences — including gender identity, race, ethnicity, and other backgrounds — tend to financially outperform, make better decisions, and are generally more successful. There is a growing movement in pedagogy that children should experience different cultures, languages, and practices to succeed more in our interconnected world. Our exposure to different perspectives and mindsets makes for a richer, more empathetic, interesting world — it can also challenge stereotypes.
While our population may be diverse — in a variety of ways — we are not equally inclusive. The very groups which allow us to claim diversity as a strength are the same ones that have been historically marginalized and harmed. Racist policies and practices outlawed decades ago still affect large swathes of the population, who, despite living in the nation’s most diverse region, do not enjoy true equity. In many cases, some progress has been made for underserved groups, but for others, the damage has lingered with devastating impacts.
In this article, Understanding Houston is setting out to celebrate Houston’s diversity by taking a look at the ways in which it underpins our region and the ways in which certain populations remain underserved.
Disability status
Over 30 years have passed since the establishment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and only one significant amendment, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008, has been made in accommodation of significant demographic shifts, and to further define what we understand as “disability.”
Disability status is often left out of the conversation about diversity. Nearly 10% of Houston’s three-county region is living with one or more disability, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That equates to more than half a million Houstonians, and researchers estimate that one out of five American households will have at least one member with a minimum of one disability by 2050 because of the aging Baby Boomer population.
While this segment of our population improves our diversity, they have not been fully included in our region’s economic prosperity. In 2020, the rate at which persons with disabilities lived below the poverty line was about double that of folks living without disabilities, according to data from the American Community Survey. People living with disabilities experience significantly lower employment rates, and those who are employed receive significantly lower pay. The National Disability Institute estimates that households containing an adult with a work disability require, on average, 28 percent more income — an additional $17,690 a year for a household at the median income level — to enjoy the same standard of living as a comparable household without a member with a disability. As this population ages and grows, these inequities will only become more acute unless significant changes are made to policy and planning.
Sexual orientation and gender identity
Sexual orientation and gender identity are other vital and under-discussed ways in which our region is diverse. While Pride and sexual/gender diversity have become more widely celebrated in recent years, there is still a long way to go. After all, what does it mean to celebrate diversity without equity and inclusion?
Obtaining reliable data on queer populations in Greater Houston is challenging, but we do know that as of 2021, Texas is the state with the second-largest number of LGBTQIA adult residents, estimated to be around 1.7 million people, though this may be an undercount. Attitudes toward the LGBTQIA community have evolved, and support is growing. Both acceptance of same-sex relations and support for same-sex marriage have doubled since the 1990s, jumping from 31% in 1993 to 64% in 2019, according to the Kinder Houston Area Survey.
LGBTQIA individuals make up our residents, our families, our workers, and our visitors. Houston scored above average on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2021 Municipal Equity Index, a report that measures how thoroughly LGBTQIA residents, workers and visitors are protected from discrimination across American cities. Houston scored perfectly for “offering equivalent benefits and protections to LGBTQIA employees, awarding contracts to fair-minded businesses, and taking steps to ensure an inclusive workplace,” and “city leadership’s commitment to fully include the LGBTQIA community and to advocate for full equality,” which led the city to a total score of 76, above the average of 67. While “above average” is a great start, there is still work to be done.
Texas, for instance, still lacks many basic protections against discrimination for LGBTQIA residents. As of 2020, Texas had no official protection for LGBTQIA population from discrimination in housing, public accommodations, credit and lending or anti-bullying for students. As of 2019, LGBTQIA folks in Texas live in poverty at a rate higher than that for cisgender straight people.
Racial, ethnic and linguistic diversity
Greater Houston’s reputation for diversity is often rooted in its extraordinary ethnic/racial diversity. Over two-thirds of Houston’s three-county region is comprised of people of color, who made up 95% of Texas’ population growth over the last decade. This trend toward increasing diversity will undoubtedly continue as the racial/ethnic composition of children under five in the three-county area is even more diverse than our overall population.
The region is made richer by multiculturalism in incalculable ways. Still, many of the diverse populations who contribute to the economy and vibrancy of the region continue to face disproportionate challenges and inequities. People of color, the majority of our region’s population, have on average poorer health, lower household incomes, lower access to quality housing, among other disparities. Why is this?
That question has many answers, often related to outdated, discriminatory public policy put in place with the intention of keeping American metros racially segregated. Policies that, despite being outlawed today, have done irreparable harm to the quality of life and access to opportunities for entire communities across generations. One of the many discriminatory practices employed in our nation’s history, including the Houston area, was called redlining. Redlining maps were used in the early-to-mid 20th century to determine which neighborhoods would receive public investment and access to home loans. The result of which legally prevented nearly all Black and Mexican Americans from being able to purchase homes.
Homeownership is the most common avenue to building generational wealth. The exclusion of the single most important American investment opportunity does not, however, scratch the surface of how damaging these policies really were to Black Americans.
Redlining maps and other discriminatory housing policies not only prevented Black families from building meaningful wealth, but also ensured that Black neighborhoods would be isolated from access to safe affordable housing, good jobs, and proper infrastructures like parks, roads or stormwater drainage. The result is what we see today — communities that have worse air quality, higher temperatures, limited fresh food options and lower rated schools.
Despite these disparities, segregation levels in the region have ticked down, according to the fractionalization index, which measures the likelihood that two random people in a given area will be of different races or ethnicities. A score of one on this index represents a 100% chance that two random people will be of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, with a score of zero representing that it would be impossible. Fort Bend County (0.75 in 2017) has the highest level of diversity among the three counties, although Harris is right behind it (0.69 in 2017). In Montgomery County, the odds are a little lower at 0.50.
Another way to measure diversity as it relates to segregation is the entropy index, which measures the degree to which racial/ethnic groups are concentrated in specific areas. An entropy index score of one would mean that only one ethnic group was represented in the area, indicating complete segregation, while a score of zero would indicate complete integration. This measure suggests Harris County is more segregated than Fort Bend or Montgomery counties. Although Montgomery County is less segregated than both Fort Bend and Harris counties, it is also the least diverse.
The greater Houston region is also home to exceptional linguistic diversity thanks to its residents who originate from all over the world. Of all three Houston-area counties, Fort Bend County has the greatest linguistic diversity, while Harris County has the most non-English speakers. About 28% of residents in Harris County are limited English speakers who either speak English “not well” or “not at all.” Spanish is the most common non-English language spoken in homes in the three-county region, followed by other Indo-European languages (such as Greek, Hindi, Italian and Persian), Vietnamese and Chinese.
Houston is enriched by diversity
Diversity enriches Greater Houston in innumerable ways, but the population groups that contribute to our diversity have historically faced a disproportionate number of barriers to economic stability, high-quality education, and environmentally safe and healthy neighborhoods. Specific neighborhoods in our region have long been intentionally segregated, resulting in disinvestment and poor quality infrastructure. For our entire region to thrive we need not just diversity or the championing of diversity, but economic inclusion, shared prosperity, and equitable distribution of resources for the very people who allow us to claim such a distinction.
Changing attitudes can only bring us so far, but local organizations work every day to both celebrate diversity and to ensure that all residents, regardless of ability, sexuality, gender identity or racial/ethnic background have access to the resources that enable them to thrive. Here are just a few:
DiverseWorks is a nonprofit arts program committed to inclusion and cultural equity, presenting art in all forms through collaborations that honor individual artistic vision. They foster civic participation and cross-cultural understanding by taking risks and showing work that might otherwise go unseen.
Houston Coalition Against Hate (HCAH) is a network of community-based organizations, institutions, and leaders who come together to reduce hate and encourage belonging. HCAH does this through education, research, relationship building and prevention initiatives, as well as partnering with organizations to host events that celebrate the diversity that makes Houston strong.
Diversity is less a characteristic of Greater Houston than it is the foundation on which it was built. Greater Houston’s diversity directly informs many other aspects of the region.
Understanding Houston has already paid service to its entrepreneurial spirit, resilience and vibrance — all of which are directly shaped by the diversity of Houston’s residents. The more we meaningfully engage with and work to include all members of our increasingly diverse region, the stronger that foundation — and our region — grows.
Houston has certainly earned its reputation for resilience. Since 1980 the region has been hit by 26 natural disasters, including five hurricanes, five tropical storms, two wildfires, a dozen rain/flood events and a winter storm, to name a few. Nearly a third of these disasters have occurred since 2015, and yet the population continues to rise, and the three-county area has added jobs at a rate faster than the nation.
You’ve likely seen the “Houston bounces back” or “Houston Strong” messaging, but in a region celebrated for its resilience, not everyone bounces back equally after disaster strikes. What factors contribute to our ability to recover from the many ways disasters wreak havoc on our lives? It is important that, while acknowledging Houstonians’ resilience, we discuss the wide-ranging impacts behind the disasters that are often hiding behind the resilience narrative. The human experiences behind these disasters and the data we gather in their wake can both tell us more about what it is that makes Houston resilient and how we can better prepare for the future.
Uneven recovery, ongoing risk
About one in five residential properties are at risk of flooding in Houston’s three-county area, and 286,000 properties are projected to have “substantial” risk of flooding by the year 2050. A figure made more disquieting by the fact that communities most vulnerable to flooding are the least likely to recover. Historically, these neighborhoods are on low-lying land, receive fewer public flood mitigation projects, and are characterized by decades of disinvestment, such as poor stormwater infrastructure.
On top of that, residents of these communities are overwhelmingly low-income, immigrants, and people of color, meaning they typically have the fewest resources available to prepare in advance of a storm and to help them recover from its effects once it passes.
One year after Hurricane Harvey, the Episcopal Health Foundation conducted a survey that found that Black, low-income and immigrant families were most likely to report that they did not receive financial aid after the storm or that the financial aid they did receive covered “very little” or “none” of their financial losses. They were also more likely to report that they weren’t getting the help they needed to recover. These sentiments are validated by established research that shows that federal disaster assistance policies place vulnerable groups at a disadvantage and reduce their ability to access resources and assistance for recovery. More specifically, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Rice University found that wealth inequality increased in counties hit by more disasters. In Harris County, the wealth gap between Black and white families increased by an average of $87,000 from the effects of disasters alone.
Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey is estimated to be the second-costliest storm in U.S. history, causing about $125 billion in damage, and displaced tens of thousands of people over its six days of landfall. The challenging nature of disaster relief is plain to see when staring down a number like $125 billion.
The federal response to Hurricane Harvey was historic. The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) distributed $918.2 million in aid from its Individual and Household Program (IHP) directly to residents of the three-county area after Harvey, and the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued $1.5 billion in low-interest, long-term loans to homeowners.
Both local government and private philanthropic dollars also play a significant role in immediate relief after disasters. Local government provides for the basic necessities of those families waiting on applications to be approved and disbursements to be released, and dollars from the private sector often serve as emergency funds for the particularly vulnerable, particularly those who have not historically accessed public benefits. Collectively, philanthropic funds to support recovery from Hurricane Harvey reached about $971 million following the storm.
Still, nearly one in five (17%) Harris County residents reported that their quality of life was worse one year after Harvey as a direct result of the storm, with Black (31%) and low-income (20%) households bearing the brunt of the effect on the region.
COVID-19
Though the Houston region has plenty of experience activating after a storm, we had never responded to a public health disaster of this scale. But the region responded quickly in March 2020 by adapting our weather-related disaster expertise to a pandemic. Our ability to be nimble and flexible in responding to the effects of COVID-19 revealed both strengths and gaps in our resilience.
Not only were people getting sick and dying, our region suffered significant job loss, with unemployment peaking in April and May of 2020 at 14.6% in Harris County. Households with low incomes were the most likely to lose their jobs. One in five renters still reported that they were behind on payments in December 2021, almost two years after the onset of the pandemic. The Houston Metro Area has the highest rate of reported food insecurity, among the 15 most populous metros 15 times out of the first 40 surveys conducted by the Census Bureau, with the highest rates among people of color and households with children.
The challenges were enormous, and our region quickly responded with innovative relief funds and programs. This is not an exhaustive list, of course, but here are just a few:
The COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program, funded by Harris County and the City of Houston, aimed to bring financial relief to thousands of tenants impacted by the health and economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. The program has provided nearly $280 million in rental assistance to almost 70,000 households impacted by COVID-19 since it launched in February 2021. The funds have been distributed by three agencies with established experience in helping people in need: BakerRipley, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and The Alliance.
The majority of folks who lost their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic worked in hospitality and retail. The Get Shift Done program paid for out-of-work hospitality workers to staff food pantries — this served the dual purpose of responding to the skyrocketing demand for food donation while also providing living wages to folks who were laid off.
The Lost Loved One Fund, funded through the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund and administered by Memorial Assistance Ministries provided flexible financial assistance to families that lost a primary breadwinner or immediate family member due to COVID-19.
To combat food scarcity, the Urban Harvest Community Gardens Program, one of many agencies addressing food insecurity in the region, donated 136,000 pounds of food in 2020 alone, and the Houston Eats Restaurant Support program raised almost $5 million to provide for food-insecure individuals.
Through a systems investment from the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund, Connective has been developing coordinated social service and financial assistance programs for Texas Gulf Coast Residents in need. Read more about their work here and learn about how they are reimagining how disaster services are delivered in the region with residents at the center of it all.
Winter Storm Uri
Most recently, Winter Storm Uri brought nearly unprecedented challenges in February 2021 to a region already well-acquainted with natural disasters.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas estimates the true costs of Winter Storm Uri to be somewhere between $80 and $130 billion, which would make it potentially the most costly weather disaster in Texas history. The storm left millions of people without power and water, causing damage in patterns not dissimilar to those of previous disasters in that vulnerable communities were affected disproportionately.
In response, Mayor Sylvestor Turner and Judge Lina Hidalgo quickly established the Houston Harris County Winter Storm Relief Fund, which the Greater Houston Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Houston jointly administered. The first round of emergency financial assistance was distributed within four days to pre-existing nonprofit partners with a proven record of disaster response — a pace faster than any previous local disaster response.
To help low-income homeowners repair damage caused by burst pipes and other effects of the ice storm, the Winter Storm Relief Fund supported an innovative program from Connective, a local nonprofit, that connects families in need with home repair agencies. Connective’s work streamlines the home repair process by serving as a one-stop shop for families and bringing increased accessibility to social services through their knowledge of the disaster relief cycle and cutting-edge, human-centered technology.
Resilience for all
True climate resilience, however, is ultimately about not only ensuring the most vulnerable in our region are able to recover from disasters quickly, but also anticipating and preparing for the worst. Residents who are economically, housing, and food secure before disaster strikes are most likely to recover from the negative impacts of disasters in the shortest amount of time.
Houston has certainly earned its reputation for responding quickly and effectively after crises, but the future of reaching true climate resilience will require transformative systems/ infrastructure change, public investment in areas and communities most at risk, and philanthropic dollars that spur innovation. Still, Houston is strong, as are the people who call it home, and our collective capacity for innovation, empathy and hard work will always remain a hallmark of our region.
For some time, Greater Houston has been, to those who don’t live here, in the midst of an identity crisis. Even Anthony Bourdain, a man who made a career of ostensibly analyzing and broadcasting to the world the essence of every city into which he wandered, admitted to “entertaining lazy prejudices and assumptions” about the Houston region and its residents.
Maybe it isn’t their fault. Houston does, to some degree, defy categorization. Are we cowboys or astronauts? Are we defined by the award-winning chefs or the abundance of mom-and-pop spots? Our world-class museums or our fanatical football fans?
The confluence of Houstonians’s ideas and sensibilities have informed the evolution of our region in complex and unobvious ways, too great in number to track, catalog or fully recount. The region’s diversity and vastness extend to our arts, culture, and food — and create an environment of constant discovery. Understanding Houston would like to spotlight just a few places and organizations that make our corner of the world so vibrant.
Houston’s world-class arts community
Houston is home to the esteemed Theater District, which boasts nearly 13,000 seats, and is one of only five cities with permanent resident companies in each of the major performing arts disciplines. The Alley Theatre, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance, [Jesse H.] Jones Hall [for the Performing Arts], Revention Music Center and the Wortham Theater Center are all within the 17 blocks that comprise Houston’s Theater District. Additionally, many smaller venues and organizations bring the arts to all corners of the region.
Similar to the Theater District, Houston’s renowned Museum District is broken into four walkable, themed zones, featuring both touring and permanent exhibits throughout. While the Museum of Fine Arts might be the oldest art museum in Texas, it is certainly not the only way to engage with the arts in Houston.
There were more than 1,260 arts and culture organizations in Houston’s three-county area in 2020, up from just 181 in 1990. Most of this growth was in Harris County (599 new organizations), but both Montgomery and Fort Bend counties both saw significant growth in arts and cultural sectors as well — the number of arts and cultural organizations in Montgomery County grew tenfold in 30 years.
These organizations contribute significantly to the local economy as well; the Houston Metropolitan Area’s nonprofit arts and culture industry generated over $579.4 million in total economic activity in 2015, according to the latest Arts & Economic Prosperity report. These organizations directly supported 14,389 full-time equivalent jobs and delivered $42.8 million in local and state government revenue.
Despite an abundance of arts organizations and performances, families with lower incomes do not have the same level of access to the arts as higher-income households.
According to the latest Houston Arts Survey, just 29% of respondents with reported household incomes below $37,500 attended a live performance, compared to 52% for respondents with annual household incomes between $37,501 and $62,500 — and the disparities continue to increase with higher earnings.
However, Houston’s passion for the arts isn’t fully reflected in official access or attendance figures. Many organizations in Greater Houston work to address disparities in access to and participation in the arts. Groups like Asia Society Texas Center, MECA Houston, the Laini Kuumba Ngoma Troupe and the Institute of Hispanic Culture celebrate and showcase the artistic traditions and cultural expression of diverse communities that have been historically underrepresented in the “traditional arts” scene.
A region shaped by local and global traditions
Houston’s three-county region observes an amalgam of traditions — both homegrown and carried from afar. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the world’s largest of its kind, is an example of a homegrown tradition informed by the traditions of another culture. The Rodeo grew out of an effort to preserve a regional industry but has made efforts to incorporate and recognize Latin American contributions to the industry and culture from which it was born. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo wouldn’t exist without the charreada, which was the cultural precursor to the rodeo, or those big Texas cattle drives (which sustained the nascent Texas economy) that came by way of Spanish Mexico.
The Houston region is home to a number of religious congregations that originated from around the globe. The Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH) is the largest Islamic society in North America, and the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is the first and only traditional Hindu temple of its kind in the United States — the stones for which were hand sculpted by 2,000 artisans in India.
The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is one in a long line of ambitious monuments that tells the story of our region. The Astrodome also comes to mind, but so do smaller places like the “Be Someone” bridge and the Rothko Chapel, which showcase a different form of Houston’s social and intellectual ambitions. The former often serves as a barometer for our times, as the message often changes to represent the current needs and fears of the citizenry, and the latter stands immovable.
Houston’s culinary influence
Houston, once known mainly for Tex-Mex and chain restaurants, now boasts eateries that represent more than 70 countries and American regions. Renowned chef and restaurateur, David Chang called Houston the “next food capital of America” in 2016, and the food scene has only grown since then. The most meaningful way that the food scene in Houston has changed recently is not in the flavor of the food itself, but in the visibility it has gained on the national stage — 10 Houston chefs were among the 2022 James Beard Award Semifinalists.
Despite the bevy of talented chefs on the cutting edge of cuisine, the evolution of the region’s culinary identity is due in principle to one factor: the diversity of its residents.
Our position on the Gulf Coast secured a foothold not only on fresh local seafood but on one-of-a-kind Cajun cuisine, and the French fundamentals that inform it. The Czexans (Czech Texans) that immigrated to the hill country have given us a lot more than the famous, but still nationally obscure kolache. The fact that our region is home to the third largest population of Vietnamese Americans in the nation has contributed to a culinary culture in which dishes like pho or bánh mì are as commonplace as BBQ and hamburgers. Additionally, the significant South Asian population has given rise to some of the most acclaimed Indian and Pakistani food in the country.
A region made vibrant by its residents
We all know that Houston is diverse. We have seen the data asserted time and time again. What that data does not tell us, however, is the individual stories of all of those people. The un-measurable and intangible essence of what makes Houston special is that for every person represented artistically or culinarily in the three-county region, there are thousands more, cooking in their homes or painting for their grandchildren.
Houston is certainly vibrant, but it wouldn’t be anything without Houstonians — who are as difficult to define as the region itself. Be they artists, chefs, or cowboys, the stories and passions of the people that inhabit the region are what bring Houston alive.
“This is the city where the American future is going to be worked out,” Stephen L. Klineberg, Ph.D., said of Houston in 2010. Klineberg, the founding director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, has been tracking the ways in which Houston has been changing since the 1980s through the Kinder Houston Area Survey. Understanding Houston, like the Kinder Institute, believes that data helps tell our region’s story and provides a barometer with which we can measure how we change over time. Our region is of such consequence not only because of our size and demographics, but also because of strengths like our industrial diversity and the opportunities we have to address our region’s unique vulnerabilities.
Houston’s population growth, population change
Greater Houston’s population has changed significantly over the last few decades, a trend that will inform the other ways in which our region will continue to evolve and grow.
Houston’s three-county region has added over one million residents since 2010, with each county seeing significant population increases. Population growth comes from two sources: natural increase and net migration. Natural increase refers to the number of births minus the number of deaths, and it is relatively predictable. Net migration, both domestic and international, is more affected by external factors, such as cost of living, the regional economy and public policy.
The U.S. Census Bureau distinguishes between domestic and international migration when calculating net migration. According to Census Bureau data, Harris County, the most populous of Houston’s three-county region, experienced significant negative domestic migration between 2010 and 2020. Approximately 80,000 more people left Harris County to live elsewhere in the U.S. than moved into Harris County from somewhere else in the country over the ten-year period.
Despite the negative domestic migration, Harris County (and the region overall) continues to grow at a rapid rate. This is due to both the natural increase and high levels of international migration — Harris County gained 289,400 residents from international migration over the ten-year period. The population in Houston hasn’t just grown, however, it has fundamentally changed.
More than two-thirds of Houston’s three-county region is now made up of people of color, marking a complete demographic transformation from the region’s racial/ethnic composition just 40 years ago. The largest contribution to this immense shift has been the growth of people who identify as Asian American or Hispanic, who now comprise 47% of the population of Houston’s three-county area, up from 16% in 1980.
Increasing industrial diversity
Houston has a reputation for being an energy town. This reputation, while not entirely unearned, is limited in its assessment of the Houston economy. Houston ranks third among U.S. metropolitan areas in number of Fortune 500 headquarters, and received half a billion dollars in venture capital funds for the tech sector in 2019 alone.
The jobs in Houston’s three-county region have also changed. Between 2000 and 2020, the number of people employed in management of companies and enterprises increased five-fold to 43,000 in 2020 from 8,000 only 20 years ago. And jobs in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting in our region have fallen 40% to 28,000 in 2020 from 45,600 in 2000, according to the Quarterly Census for Employment and Wages. Perhaps most concerning, manufacturing jobs in the region have also fallen 7% in that same time period. Further, job growth in Texas and the three-county region has outpaced the national rate in all major industries but healthcare and social assistance, though that industry now employs 13% of our region’s workforce compared to 9% in 2000.
Healthcare and social assistance jobs, however, are more likely to qualify as ‘“opportunity employment.” Opportunity employment refers to the jobs accessible to workers without bachelor’s degrees that pay above the national median wage and reflect the local cost of living. In the Houston metro area, 24% of employment was classified as opportunity employment in 2017, while 27% of jobs required a bachelor’s degree, and 49% of employment was considered lower-wage.
Climate change and environmental progress
It would be impossible to discuss the region’s evolution over the last few decades without mentioning our relationship with the environment, natural disasters and climate change in Houston. The region continues to feel the effects of more frequent and severe storms, which have shaped the region in many ways — some more obvious than others.
Although many in the region have grown accustomed to the oppressive Houston heat, Houston is demonstrably hotter than it was a decade ago, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The 30-year average temperature in our region increased between 0.6 and 1.0 degrees Fahrenheit between 2010 and 2020 — unwelcome news to residents who live in a region that can be dangerously hot. Montgomery County had over 500 days at temperatures above 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the last decade, compared with fewer than 300 days the previous decade. That is almost two-thirds of a year of extra extreme heat over a single decade.
At the same time, we have made major strides in improving our region’s air and water quality. For example, between 2000 and 2020, levels of harmful particulate matter fell 23% in the Houston Metropolitan Area. Texas also produces a larger share (23%, nearly double the national rate) of its energy from renewable resources than the rest of the nation. Living up to its reputation as a city ready to embrace change, the City of Houston announced its Climate Action Plan, aiming to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Changing perspectives and behaviors
We’ve seen how the region’s demographics, industry and environment have evolved over the last few decades, but how have Houstonians’ behaviors, opinions and attitudes changed?
Resident priorities have changed in the past 10 years in many meaningful ways. Voting in Houston has experienced a surge in popularity, with voter registration rates at an all-time high, in keeping with the country’s increased participation throughout the pandemic and in the 2020 election. Voter turnout increased by almost 10 percentage points in Fort Bend County between the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and 7.8 points in both Harris and Montgomery counties. Houston voters still lag behind the rest of the country in voter turnout, but the region is making progress.
The region has also gone through some important ideological changes related to sustainability and urban innovation. Metro’s light-rail service and bus routes have been expanded, and Houston BCycle, a local non-profit bike-share program, has seen rider numbers spike. Houston Parks Board has introduced their Bayou Greenways Plan in an effort to create and connect a navigable greenspace through the system of bayous running through the city.
Some of the most profound shifts in our region are also some of the least visible. Gradual changes in ideology have also taken place. For example, support for same sex marriage in the Houston area has more than doubled in the last few decades, growing to 64% in 2019 from 31% in 1993, according to the 2020 Kinder Houston Area Survey.
The effects of a diverse population may have inspired another change; 71% of U.S.-born non-Hispanic white adults in Harris County are in favor of granting undocumented immigrants a path to legal citizenship if they speak English and have no criminal record, up from 56% in 2010.
Despite our challenges, the proportion of Houston-area residents who say the region is a “good” or “excellent” place to live has increased to 76% in 2020 from 59% in 1983, according to data from the Kinder Houston Area Survey.
Houston’s resilience won’t change
Change can be unsettling, but it can also represent growth and improvement. As much as our region has already changed, we know more is still to come — some changes we may reasonably predict while others may completely surprise us. And in the face of all this change, we look to one constant aspect of our region: resiliency. Whatever may come our way, we know that armed with the right information and resources, community leaders and residents alike can help Houston thrive through whatever may come next.
