Jeff Reichman

I’m rooting for an obscure line item in the Texas budget

By Jeff Reichman / January 12, 2023 / Comments Off on I’m rooting for an obscure line item in the Texas budget

The Texas legislative session kicked off this week, and lawmakers have a $32.7 billion surplus to work with. What are they going to do with it? I’ve got an idea. It’s just an IT line item in a budget request, and it would only cost 0.018% of that surplus. But it’s meaningful, and it could…

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Map of bills filed by the 88th Texas Legislature (2023)

By Jeff Reichman / November 22, 2022 / Comments Off on Map of bills filed by the 88th Texas Legislature (2023)

The next meeting of the Texas legislature starts in January, and House and Senate members just started the process of filing new bills. Over the next few months, these bills will be refined in committees, emerge for a vote, and potentially signed into law. But right now, they are the raw materials for the next…

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image of map showing property tax protest success rates for homeowners in houston

Homeowners in Houston do better when they protest property taxes on their own

By Jeff Reichman / April 27, 2022 / Comments Off on Homeowners in Houston do better when they protest property taxes on their own

The Houston housing market is hot. Inventory is low and demand is high. From March 2021 to March 2022, the average price of a single family home went up an astonishing 19.3%. With rising market prices comes an increase in tax assessed values. Property tax protest season is here, and you have until May 15…

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seal your record harris county

New website helps people seal their criminal record in Harris County

By Jeff Reichman / August 19, 2021 / Comments Off on New website helps people seal their criminal record in Harris County

In Texas, every criminal conviction has collateral consequences. For example, if you’re convicted of a felony, you lose your right to vote during incarceration, probation, or parole. Texas has over 1,400 collateral consequences. You can explore them for yourself at the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction database. But these consequences aren’t just for…

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chart of weekly cdc declarations in harris county eviction cases

Only 13% of defendants invoked the CDC eviction moratorium in Harris County

By Jeff Reichman / August 2, 2021 / Comments Off on Only 13% of defendants invoked the CDC eviction moratorium in Harris County

The CDC eviction moratorium was supposed to prevent evictions. When the CDC first announced the moratorium in September 2020, a CNN headline shouted Evictions Are Halted, noting that it “covered most renters across the US.” The moratorium lasted almost eleven months. During that time, we found 3,289 cases where the policy delayed or prevented an…

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plume of smoke from the deer park fire - credit: AP

The story of Kuukibot and air quality in Houston

By Jeff Reichman / August 6, 2021 / Comments Off on The story of Kuukibot and air quality in Houston

Poor air quality is a problem for Houston, and it’s been that way for decades. The region accounts for 42% of the country’s base petrochemical capacity. Refining oil is a dirty business. It involves processing chemicals and generating toxic byproducts. A lot of this work takes place around the Houston Ship Channel, which is the…

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table showing results by court of the cdc eviction moratorium

First Results of the CDC Eviction Moratorium in Houston

By Jeff Reichman / February 8, 2021 / Comments Off on First Results of the CDC Eviction Moratorium in Houston

The CDC eviction moratorium is the main federal policy to reduce housing displacement during the pandemic. It took effect on September 4, 2020 and remains authorized through the end of March 2021. When applied, the moratorium can be a powerful force to pause an eviction. The criteria to qualify are pretty broad. Landlords must make…

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Map of Bills Filed by the 87th Texas Legislature (2021)

By Jeff Reichman / November 9, 2020 / Comments Off on Map of Bills Filed by the 87th Texas Legislature (2021)

The Texas Legislature doesn’t meet very often. When it does, a lot can happen in a short period of time. We have to live with the results. It’s a policy pressure cooker. Today, members of the Texas House and Senate began filing bills. The lege website makes it easy to see the bills filed every…

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Evictions in Houston: Two Months Into COVID-19

By Jeff Reichman / May 18, 2020 / Comments Off on Evictions in Houston: Two Months Into COVID-19

On March 18, 2020, the Texas Supreme Court put a temporary stay on eviction proceedings across the state. That temporary stay expires today, and there are no indictions that it will be extended. While this stay prevented nearly all evictions during this two month period, it allowed landlords to continue filing eviction cases. This means…

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Webinar: 20 Years of Evictions in Houston and Harris County

By Jeff Reichman / March 31, 2020 / Comments Off on Webinar: 20 Years of Evictions in Houston and Harris County

Earlier in March, as the COVID-19 public health crisis was starting to unfold in the United States, we released our study of twenty years of evictions in Houston in Harris County. This study examined some of the basic metrics in eviction court records, such as the number of cases filed, the number of judgments in…

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