The Core Blog

Yesterday, the Texas Tribune ran a story about a six-year-old girl named Karla. She and her father fled Houston’s rising flood waters through a second-story window in their apartment, with Karla’s father lowering her into the waiting arms of a Houston police officer before he climbed out himself. While the story’s primary focus is on the city’s neglect of the neighborhood in which they live, it also describes the way that the trauma of the

Banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders and consumer lenders all have an important role to play in the Hurricane Harvey recovery.Families will be struggling to make mortgage payments, debt and bill payments, access funds, cash checks, and meet other financial services needs. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD and the VA have announced special programs for mortgage loans that they oversee, but those same protections are not required for other parts of the market. Banking regulators (

In the midst of Texas’ first hurricane since Ike and Dolly in 2008, we need to make sure that all members of our communities are included in emergency management and disaster recovery. Time after time, disasters have revealed the systemic inequities that exist for people and communities in vulnerable areas, making it even harder for them to recover. Inequitable response and recovery make rebounding from the next disaster much more difficult. From pre-disaster planning to

I am married to a man who is an ardent World War II expert — an armchair expert, mind you, not an academic. He grew up in the shadow of the men of his grandfather’s generation, absorbing the stories of heroism they brought back after fighting against the terrorism Nazi Germany visited upon the world. What this means is that over the last 15 years, I have absorbed more World War II history than I

A recent U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling gives hope to Texas borrowers who are wrongfully charged with a criminal violation simply because they defaulted on a loan. The court found that the defendant in the case — a payday loan company — waived its right to arbitrate when it submitted false affidavits that claimed borrowers wrote hot checks. Filing criminal complaints to collect on a debt is against the law. State law explicitly

A new report by Texas Appleseed, Fair Loans and Family Finances, finds that access to fair loans improves financial stability for low-income Texans. The report examines survey data from nearly 400 Community Loan Center borrowers (CLC). The Community Loan Center, with nine locations throughout Texas,offers low-cost loans to borrowers who might otherwise use payday or auto title loans to meet a short-term financial need. The loan, a maximum of $1,000, is offered at 18% interest

Updated: May 15, 2017 House & Senate Include Important Provisions in Proposed Budgets When youth do not have a safe, secure, and stable place to live, their health and schooling can be gravely impacted — and it can set them up for long-lasting negative outcomes. That is why Texas Appleseed and the Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS) continue to advocate for youth who have experienced, or are currently experiencing, homelessness. We are also excited

Just in time for Elder Abuse Prevention Month, the Texas House passed HB 3921 last week — a bill by Rep. Tan Parker, Chair, House Investments & Financial Services. This bill aims to reduce financial abuse by providing financial institutions and securities dealers with tools and authorization to place a hold on suspicious transactions. Once money is in the hands of fraudsters and those taking advantage of vulnerable family members, it is difficult, if not

Updated: May 2, 2017 Loan Shark Bill Moving in Texas House: Oppose HB 3081 HB 3081 would expand abusive payday lending in Texas and erase hard-fought local protections (the unified city ordinance) that at least 42 Texas cities have passed since 2011.We MUST stop HB 3081 frombeing placed on the House Calendar. TAKE ACTION TO DEFEND THE CITY ORDINANCES:Please call as many of the following committee members as you can, especially the ones in your

Updated: March 27, 2017 Several great bills have been filed this session to improve how courts handle fines and court costs in criminal cases, so that people are able to resolve what they owe while avoiding the counterproductive cycle of debt, warrants and jail time that often results. Here are a few of the bills that Texas Appleseed strongly supports: Senate Bill 1913 (Zaffirini) was drafted based on 2016 recommendations on court costs approved by

Updated: March 27, 2017 Currently, there are six bills related to asset forfeiture that have been sent to the either the State Affairs or Criminal Justice Committees in the Senate and nine bills that have been sent to the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee in the House. The most comprehensive of these bills are companion bills SB 380 (Burton) and HB 1364 (Thompson). These identical bills will repeal civil asset forfeiture and establish criminal asset forfeiture. Simply

Updated March 14, 2017 Three bills that would significantly reduce suspensions for young students were filed this legislative session: SB 370 by Senator Sylvia Garcia, HB 674 by Representative Eric Johnson, and HB 2616 by Representative Helen Giddings. Senator Garcia’s bill prohibits the use of suspensions and alternative school placements for minor behaviors for students in Pre-K through 2nd grades. Representative Johnson’s bill prohibits out-of-school suspensions for students younger than six years old. Representative Giddings’