The Core Blog

To the outside world, it must look as though Texas’ juvenile justice system is imploding. Not only are media articles appearing on a regular basis about sexual and physical abuse of young people in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s secure facilities, we are also reading about overcrowding in Harris County’s juvenile detention facility, and kids being refused time outside at the Dallas County juvenile post-adjudication facility. What should we make of this? How do all

February is the month that municipal and justice courts across Texas traditionally begin their “Great Warrant Roundup” — an attempt to enforce warrants for unpaid fines in low-level misdemeanor cases by showing up at people’s home or workplaces to arrest them. People who cannot pay fines have not historically been offered meaningful alternatives, like community service, in most Texas municipal and justice courts so the warrant roundup has been an unnecessary exercise that harms and

Importance of Federal School Discipline Guidance Package Video of Importance of Federal School Discipline Guidance Package The Federal School Discipline Guidance Package, issued by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice in 2014, is being threatened. Recent media reports show that the U.S. Department of Education is receiving input from a few select groups that may lead the Department to rescind these important guidelines that help us to protect Texas students from harmful and discriminatory

What Will It Mean for Texas? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released the final payday and auto title lending rule on October 5, after spending the past five years studying the market and its impacts on borrowers. The final rule was posted in the Federal Register on November 17, which officially starts the 21-month period to full implementation. Texas Appleseed, along with our partners in the Texas Fair Lending Alliance and Texas Faith Leaders

The City of Austin ordinance designed to address harmful practices by payday and auto title loan businesses has overcome an important legal hurdle. A Travis County Court found, in two separate opinions, that the ordinance is not preempted by state law. In March, a municipal court ruled that an important provision of the Austin ordinance, one that limits payday and auto title loans to four payments and requires 25% principal pay down with every payment

Homeowner’s insurance plays a vital role in disaster recovery, not only helping families and businesses to rebuild, but also providing coverage for temporary housing and replacing personal possessions. However, homeowner’s insurance does not cover flood or windstorm damage for certain homeowners. Flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program and windstorm insurance through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association are separate insurance policies with different coverage. We wanted to take a moment to answer some questions

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