Houston's Housing

Those plans include providing subsidies to low- and moderate-income families who want to buy a house. And, the mayor says, more privately owned apartment units will be rehabilitated.

"I think we're having a positive impact on housing and a positive impact on neighborhoods," says Lanier.

But not everyone is convinced that the mayor's words now are any more reliable than his words were in 1993, when he spoke before the president and vice president about the future of Winwood Club apartments. And some suspect that even if his plans come to fruition, they will be of little help to those at the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

"The only way working people on the lower end of the income stream can afford a place to live is through public programs, and there has not been enough of a public outcry to do that," says Sally Shipman of the Coalition for the Homeless. "About all [housing advocates are] doing is promoting something because it's the right thing to do. And not everybody agrees it is the right thing to do.