Our Values

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Be a good neighbor in communities we serve

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Identify highest and best use for sites that support community needs and initiatives, and utilize resources to create added value

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Collaborate with partners on key initiatives to support equitable and transformative development

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Provide proactive and transparent access to
data, activities, and operations

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Demonstrate continuous improvement and define national best practices

Our Impact

We’re making a difference by helping create quality affordable homes in neighborhoods across Houston. The outcomes of our efforts include better quality of life for Houston’s historically underserved communities.

We’ve reactivated more than $76 million worth of property, helping to eliminate illegal dumping and abandoned structures while generating millions of dollars in revenue to help improve for our schools and local government services.

The challenge is, home prices and rents are going up faster than incomes in Houston, and Houstonians are spending more of their money on housing. Meanwhile, our city’s historically underserved communities want and deserve transformative, equitable community and economic development – better parks, libraries, grocery stores.

Working closely with partners like the City of Houston, Houston Community Land Trust, and private and non-profit developers, we’re helping residents transform their neighborhoods in line with community plans by:

  • Creating more affordable homes — Including HLB-generated sales and construction activity, we’ve created over 500 (and counting) new affordable homes for income-limited Houstonians since 2004.
  • Reactivating vacant, abandoned or damaged properties for productive use – over the past 15 years, we’ve put property worth more than $76 million back in play. These are frequently vacant, abandoned or damaged properties that can be bad for the neighborhood. By acquiring these properties and turning them to better use – good homes for Houston – we can contribute to better quality of life for Houstonians across our city.
  • Helping pay for our schools and city and county services and helping keep tax bills low: By putting properties back on the tax rolls and increasing their value, we help generate revenue to support our public schools and city and county services. That reduces the burden on other taxpayers, and we also help reduce local government costs by vacant or abandoned lots that can be a drain on tax dollars by requiring clean-up and monitoring. In 2019 alone, former HLB properties generated some $1 million in revenue for better education and public services in Houston.

We have a lot more information to share; if you’d like to learn more about our impact, visit our MySidewalk page.

Board of Directors

The Houston Land Bank is governed by a 13-member board of directors (with a fourteenth ex-officio non-voting member). Board members are appointed by the Mayor of Houston (five appointees who must be confirmed by City Council), Houston City Council (two), Harris County Commissioners Court (three) and the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees (three).

Regular meetings of the board are held the second Thursday of each month and are open to the public. Governing documents, meeting agendas and minutes can be found on our resources page.

The mayor, or his designee, is an ex officio non-voting member of the board and may direct the Houston Land Bank’s priorities. In addition, the mayor has appointed four members to a non-voting advisory board: Nick Foran, Vincent Marquez, Elijah J. Williams and Kellen Zale. Members of the Board of Directors are listed below by appointing authority.

City of Houston Mayoral Appointees

City of Houston Council Appointees

HISD Appointees

Harris County Appointees

Advisory Board

Matt Zeis, Board Chair

David Collins, Vice Chair

Jesus DeAnda, Secretary

Victor Mondragón

Laurie Vignaud, Treasurer

Lynn Henson, Ex Officio

Dwantrina Russell

Marilyn Muguerza

Chrishelle Palay

Danielle Keys Bess

Tonzaino “Zano” Bailey

Antoinette “Toni” M. Jackson

Janae Ladet

Elaine Morales

Nick Foran

Elijah Williams

Gwendolyn Tillotson-Bell

Kellen Zale

Staff

Christa Stoneham

Chief Executive Officer | President

Charles Keys

Asset & Disposition Manager

Isai Mendez

Accounting Manager | Director of Finance

LaTosha Okoiron

Counsel | Compliance Manager

Lindsey Williams

Director of Community Development

Donesha Albrow

Program Manager

LeKendra Drayton

Administrative Assistant

History

The Houston Land Bank was originally created by the City of Houston in 1999 as the Land Assemblage and Redevelopment Authority. Through an interlocal agreement with Harris County and the Houston Independent School District, the organization acquired lots that either went unsold or were purchased at tax foreclosure auctions and sold them to builders for development of affordable homes through 2017.

Rising home prices and Hurricane Harvey increased the need for affordable housing options and the impact of development in underserved communities increase the need for community development; as a result the organization was renamed the Houston Land Bank in 2018 and its articles of incorporation and bylaws were revised to focus its mission on supporting comprehensive community development in line with the City’s Complete Communities Initiative.

See detailed timeline here

Organization History

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

Get in touch and let us know – we’d love to hear from you!
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