Notification from the TDCJ - HB 1956
In March 2017, a fire in a boarding home and a fire in an unlicensed lodging facility resulted in three deaths and the emergency evacuation of 29 elderly and disabled residents. The Mayor formed an internal working group of city departments to review and revise relevant ordinances.
The working group identified three different types of group home that exist in the City of Houston, 1) Boarding Homes, 2) Lodging Facilities and 3) Alternative Housing Facility/Correctional Facility.
As these types of homes were reviewed it was determined that they required stronger building safety regulations because no other regulatory body at the state or federal level governed the facility safety issues. The working group researched the process by which TDCJ authorizes alternative housing facilities to be placed on the resource listing.
Current TDCJ application process requires submission of an application with requested documentation and a review of a basic checklist by a district parole office. The checklist covers items such as: living space per parolee, meal planning, clothing, access to public transportation and child safety zone.
The checklist does not cover building safety, such as observance of unpermitted additions/conversions, access to fire extinguishers and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
House Bill 1956 by Rep. Harold Dutton amends the Government Code to prohibit the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ) from entering into a lease or contract with an operator of an alternative housing facility that is located in a county with a population of 3.3 million or more for the housing of inmates unless the operator submits to TDCJ a permit or other documentation showing that the facility is in compliance with all applicable municipal and county regulations.
Without knowledge of these facilities, it is difficult for local government to follow up on concerns from citizens regarding unsafe living conditions and overcrowded facilities that may be housing parolees. Building safety for those living in and around these facilities is important and warrants a change in state law to allow easier access to information from the state rather than through the public information request process.
Without zoning, Houston has a large number of these facilities approved within the corporate limits in comparison to other Texas cities. At the time the ordinance was approved by the City Council (March 2018), Houston had 99 approved alternative housing facilities within the corporate limits, Austin had 31, Dallas had 27 and Fort Worth had 12.
HB 1956 requires TDCJ to maintain a list of facilities located in such a county that provide alternative housing to two or more unrelated releasees and a list of releasees being housed at such a facility and sets out certain information required to be included in each list.
The bill requires TDCJ, on request of a county or municipality, to provide the lists to the county or municipality on a monthly basis by secured electronic mail and in a machine-readable format.
To obtain information about alternative housing facilities, local governments can only obtain location and occupancy data through a cumbersome public information request process.
House Bill 1956 would have made the process more efficient.