Anna Rhodes, Christa Stoneham, Alexis Loving, Ashley Allen, Aarti Goswami
Beyond the Keys: How Houston Is Rethinking What It Means to Stay Housed
Houston has earned national attention for reducing homelessness, but housing advocates say the city’s most important work is happening after the keys are handed over. That was the focus of a recent Houston ethnic media briefing, the second in a two-part housing series that brought together service providers, researchers, and community leaders to examine what it truly takes to help people remain housed in an increasingly expensive city.
The discussion made clear that housing stability is not achieved through a single program or policy. It requires a connected system of mental health care, affordable land strategies, permanent affordability tools, rental assistance, and early intervention when families begin to struggle.
“Getting housed is only the first step,” said Alexis Loving, president and CEO of SEARCH Homeless Services. “Housing is not the finish line. It’s the starting point.”
Loving, who has spent more than a decade working within Houston’s homelessness response system, cautioned against the assumption that housing alone resolves the crisis. Many individuals moving into housing are also managing serious mental illness, trauma, chronic health conditions, or substance use challenges.
“These complex behaviors don’t go away the second someone gets housed,” she said. “Without wraparound care and stabilization, people are at real risk of losing that housing.”
Houston’s widely cited reduction in homelessness, more than 60 percent since 2011, depends on continued access to housing units, vouchers, and sustained funding. When any part of that system weakens, maintaining progress becomes harder. Loving also challenged the tendency to measure success by visibility alone, noting that people returning to the streets often reflect gaps in support rather than personal failure.
While homelessness services address crisis response, other speakers focused on structural solutions that make housing attainable and sustainable in the first place. Christa Stoneham, president and CEO of the Houston Land Bank, emphasized that Houston is not short on land. Instead, the challenge lies in navigating a system that often slows development and drives up costs.
“We’re in Texas. We have land,” Stoneham said. “The biggest solution for affordable housing isn’t access to land. It’s that the system is semi-broken.”
The Houston Land Bank works behind the scenes to acquire vacant or tax-delinquent properties, clear legal barriers, and transfer land to approved builders at deeply discounted prices. In exchange, developers commit to building homes that meet affordability requirements for income-eligible buyers.
“My job is to transform Houston one site at a time,” Stoneham said, adding that the Land Bank’s work also includes flood mitigation, environmental remediation, and climate-resilient development. “We don’t just want to build back. We want to build smarter.”
Once homes are built, the next question is whether they will remain affordable over time. Ashley Allen, executive director of the Houston Community Land Trust, described the land trust model as a long-term solution to rising housing costs and displacement.
“The difference is not just getting people housed. It’s making sure they can stay there,” Allen said.
Under the community land trust model, the trust retains ownership of the land while homeowners purchase the house itself. This structure lowers upfront costs and places limits on resale prices, preserving affordability for future generations and protecting public investment.
“We’re not just giving residents a voice. We’re giving them power,” Allen said. “We don’t have a problem building in Houston. We have a problem sustaining affordability.”
The Houston Community Land Trust serves working households earning below 80 percent of the area median income, including teachers, retirees, and young professionals. By stabilizing resale prices, the model also helps protect homeowners from sudden property tax spikes driven by speculative market values.
Rental assistance remains a critical piece of the housing puzzle, particularly for families with the lowest incomes. Anna Rhodes, an associate professor of sociology at Rice University, explained that federal housing vouchers are one of the most effective tools for keeping renters stably housed, yet they remain out of reach for many.
“This is the federal government’s largest rental assistance program,” Rhodes said. “But we are only serving about one in four eligible households.”
In Texas, landlords can legally refuse tenants based on their source of income, creating additional barriers for voucher holders in competitive rental markets. Administrative delays and required inspections can further slow the leasing process, even for families who already have assistance in hand.
For many Houstonians on the brink of housing instability, help often begins with a phone call to 211, a free, 24-hour helpline operated locally by United Way Greater Houston. Aarti Goswami, assistant vice president of community outreach, described 211 as a prevention tool as much as a crisis resource.
“211 is the front door to accessing community resources,” Goswami said. “Every time you call 211, you speak to a real, live person.”
Demand for rent and utility assistance has remained high since the pandemic, a sign that many households are living with little margin for error. By connecting callers to multiple supports at once, 211 can help stabilize families before a temporary setback turns into displacement.
As the briefing made clear, staying housed in Houston is not about a single solution. It is about whether systems connect rather than fragment, and whether communities respond before families fall through the cracks.
