Christopher Connelly
Christopher Connelly is a KERA reporter based in Fort Worth. Christopher joined KERA after a year and a half covering the Maryland legislature for WYPR, the NPR member station in Baltimore. Before that, he was a Joan B. Kroc Fellow at NPR – one of three post-graduates who spend a year working as a reporter, show producer and digital producer at network HQ in Washington, D.C.
Christopher is a graduate of Antioch College in Ohio – he got his first taste of public radio there at WYSO – and he earned a master’s in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley. He also has deep Texas roots: He spent summers visiting his grandparents in Fort Worth, and he has multiple aunts, uncles and cousins living there now.
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A new report finds a massive shortage in Texas of rental homes affordable to extremely low-income renter households — one of the worst in the nation..
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Housing prices are up. Polls say Americans are worried and want elected officials to do something about it. And few politicians seem to be hitting the campaign trail with a pitch to be Congress’s housing problem-solver, at least in North Texas.
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The Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s funding structure. Many observers worry about catastrophic consequences.
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Air conditioning feels like a must-have in brutally hot Texas. For renters, legally, it’s not — at least not everywhere in the state.
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House Bill 2127 has massive — though ill-defined — implications for local governments. But it's not clear when Texans might start seeing its impacts.
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A tenant can’t withhold rent to force their landlord to fix a broken air conditioner or make a necessary repair, but they can take them to court to force a fix.
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Eviction filings have surged in the wake of the pandemic, but those numbers only count formal cases filed in courts. It's not clear how many people are forced out when landlords shut off their air conditioning or harass them, tenants' rights advocates say.
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Critics say the ‘Omnibase’ program — designed to spur people to pay off old tickets — often leaves poor Texans trapped in a cycle of debt.
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The National Low-Income Housing Coalition reports that low-income Texans face a housing market where truly affordable rent is largely out of reach.
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Texas cities may soon have less power to protect the air you breathe, work site safety or guarantee your rights as a renter after the Texas Legislature passed HB 2127.