Browsing by Author "Fulton, William"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
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    A Bottom-Up Infrastructure Strategy for American Renewal
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2021) Cisneros, Henry G.; Fulton, William; Clark, J.H. Cullum; Hendricks, David; Davis, Victoria; Vasquez, Claudia; Martinez, Lisa; Rodriguez, Lucrecia
    As the United States emerges from the pandemic, it is clear that the nation faces a number of major challenges. This report and an accompanying interactive map explore the infrastructure priorities identified by local and regional leaders around the nation. The report also outlines an unconventional bottom-up approach to improvements.
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    A Tale of Two Departments: Public Health in Harris County and the City of Houston
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2021) Fulton, William; Witt, Alan; Fedorowicz, Nikola; Mokrushina, Ksenia; Shelton, Kyle; Guajardo, Luis; Kinder Institute for Urban Research
    The purpose of this report is to take a fresh look at possible service overlaps between the Harris County Department of Public Health and the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services and identify options to reduce those overlaps and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the public health delivery system.
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    Collaborations and Overlapping Services in Harris County Law Enforcement
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2018) Shelton, Kyle; Fulton, William; Villegas, Carlos; Krause, Matthew; Zhang, Mingming; Lightbourne, Jesseca
    In Harris County, there are more than 60 law enforcement agencies. In general, these agencies provide a high level of service to area residents. However, there are possible efficiencies and improvements to be found. The funding that supports these entities mostly comes from local general funds and, on average, accounts for about 30 percent of local government budgets. The sheer number of agencies creates multiple overlapping services and duplicative costs. While several existing collaborations between local agencies have been successful, this more in-depth look at local law enforcement operations lays out possible options for improving service and cutting costs.
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    Governing a Growing Region: Addressing Challenges of Service Provision and Development in Houston
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2018) Shelton, Kyle; Fulton, William; Villegas, Carlos; Krause, Matthew
    Most MUDs are on firm financial footing and effectively help communities function. But, zooming out from individual communities and taking a regional view, major issues with the regional governance system appear on the horizon. This report analyzes how government entities in the Greater Houston region are struggling to provide urban-level services to all residents, especially those in unincorporated, non-central suburban areas known as municipal utility districts. The current system of providing services is uneven. The purpose of this report is to highlight how cities, counties and MUDs relate to one another and provide services, in order to identify issues associated with the current governance system and to provide possible alternatives where appropriate.
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    Preserving Affordable Housing in Harris County
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2021) Guajardo, Luis; Sherman, Stephen Averill; Park, John; Fulton, William
    In this report, Kinder Institute researchers identify affordable housing preservation policies and programs in the Houston area, document the range and extent of affordable housing, and describe best practices that could help stem the loss of local affordable housing stock.
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    Property Tax Equity in Harris County
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2022) Fulton, William; Herlands, Julie
    The purpose of this study is to estimate the extent to which property taxes paid by City of Houston residents, businesses, and property owners financially support County services provided in Harris County outside the City of Houston.
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    Re-Taking Stock: Understanding How Trends in the Housing Stock and Gentrification are connected in Houston and Harris County
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2021) Park, John; Guajardo, Luis; Shelton, Kyle; Sherman, Steve; Fulton, William
    Understanding how housing development reshapes communities is essential to discussions about redevelopment and providing residents with access to safe and affordable homes. While new development can mean improved housing conditions, increased supply and shifting home prices, it can also acutely affect communities with older homes and long-term residents with low or fixed incomes. Through seven case studies, this report highlights the different types of housing development that occur when a neighborhood gentrifies. The work expands on prior Kinder Institute studies about countywide gentrification and development.
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    Texas Metropolitan Blueprint: A Policy Agenda to Secure the Competitiveness and Prosperity of Texas
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2021) Clark, Cullum; Fulton, William; Pedigo, Steven; Shelton, Kyle
    Texas is a metropolitan state. It needs a metropolitan policy agenda. Metropolitan regions are home to 9 in 10 Texans, and they are the state’s economic engines. They need a slate of policies that improves the quality of life for all their residents—and at the same time drives their competitiveness. This Texas Metropolitan Blueprint lays out recommendations for policies that address the most important economic development, land use, housing, infrastructure, and transportation challenges of the state’s metropolitan areas. Each is critical to speeding Texas’s economic recovery and securing its long-term prosperity.
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    The 2021 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2021) Sherman, Stephen Averill; Park, John; Guajardo, Luis; Shelton, Kyle; Lessans, Jenna; Mokrushina, Ksenia; Fulton, William
    The 2021 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston uses a range of indicators to track the challenges, opportunities and trends in the region's housing system.
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    The 2022 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston Kinder Houston Area Survey: At the Forefront of a Changing America
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2022) Park, John; Sherman, Stephen Averill; Guajardo, Luis; Fulton, William; Kinder Institute for Urban Research
    The third annual State of Housing report documents a rapidly changing housing environment in Houston and Harris County. Due to delays in data released from the U.S. Census and the American Communities Survey, the 2022 report relied more on data from other sources, especially the Houston Associations of Realtors (HAR) and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The HAR data, in particular, helped us understand the dramatic changes in the home ownership market, especially rising prices and low inventory. The HMDA data provided us with rich insight into trends in home mortgages.
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    The Urban Sun Belt: An Overview
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2020) Fulton, William; Hazle, Shelly G.; Choudary, Wendie; Sherman, Stephen Averill
    This paper focuses on the 22 metropolitan statistical areas in the Sun Belt with a population of 1 million people or more. Together, they accounted for almost half of all population growth in the entire United States between 2010 and 2016. Overall, the combination of growing income inequality, rising housing costs, segregation and the automobile-centric nature of Sun Belt cities creates an interconnected set of challenges that would be difficult for any city or metropolitan area to deal with. The fact that these challenges are occurring in large, young, fast-growing metros makes the challenge doubly difficult. This report highlights the differences between Sun Belt urban areas and other metros, and it aims to start a conversation about how large Sun Belt cities might begin to tackle the urban policy challenges specific to them.
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    Troubled Fiscal Times: A Comparison of Revenue Sources and Service Levels for Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2020) Fulton, William; Villegas, Carlos; Shelton, Kyle; Griffin, Ben; Bise, Carson
    This report examines the revenue structure and service levels for Texas' three largest cities: Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. The intent is to understand the differences in the cities’ revenue structures — and whether any one of the three is unusually constrained — while at the same time seeking to understand how their revenue is used to provide services, especially in four key areas: police, fire, parks and solid waste. Although most of the research for this report was conducted before the COVID-19 crisis, some information on the impact of the related economic downturn has been incorporated.
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    Who's Policing the Police?: A Comparison of the Civilian Agencies that Perform Oversight of Police in Texas' Five Largest Cities
    (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2020) Sherman, Stephen Averill; Fulton, William
    This report analyzes the civilian agencies that perform oversight of police in Texas' five largest cities: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth. These five cities' oversight agencies have different mandates, responsibilities and investigative powers, as well as different relationships to the general public and disclosure requirements. Our research demonstrates that compared to Houston, the other major Texas cities have more-extensive oversight agencies.