At January Advisors, our passions run deep. On the surface, we are data nerds, but at our core, we are apple nerds. Whenever we get together, we conduct elaborate blind taste tests of different apple varieties. After slicing the apples, we slice the data, identifying the group’s favorite, least favorite, and most contentious apples. Want…
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For several years, we have collected Harris County eviction data from the courts every day, made it available on a real-time dashboard, and published several analyses of the data. Harris County has some of the best eviction court data available in the country, and as a result, we have been cleaning and sharing the data…
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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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Sprinkles or M&Ms? One scoop or two? Cup or cone? These are tough questions, and even though we’ve got global problems on our minds these days, dessert is still important. Good ice cream can make the world a little more manageable. Here in Houston, we’re lucky to have ice cream weather year-round, and we’ve got…
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The Chevron Marathon is this weekend, bringing 27,000 runners from around the world to Houston. Each runner carries with them unique reasons that keep them moving through busy weeks and bad weather. Some common motivators are improving cardiovascular health, getting to know your city, socializing with a running community, and the satisfaction of setting and…
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About a year ago, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced us out of our office, the January Advisors team adopted some new practices to adjust to remote work. We now start and end the day with a team check-in. The primary objective of these meetings (called “standup” and “sitdown”) is to update everyone on our work…
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In the United States, incarcerated people are five times more likely to contract COVID-19 and three times more likely to die of COVID-19 than the general population. In response to the pandemic, activists are calling for officials to reduce the jail population in order to keep everyone safe. With a cash bail system, many people…
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Public art can bring a neighborhood together. Murals especially can help create a stronger sense of place. They can also be used to raise awareness about important social issues facing a community. If you’ve ventured outside onto the streets of Houston lately, you might have seen a few new bright yellow murals urging residents to…
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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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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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