Houston Landing

Houston Landing is a standalone, unbiased news platform dedicated to serving the community through journalism that supports democracy and enhances the quality of life for everyone in Houston, one article at a time. Our nonprofit digital service focuses on delivering reliable coverage of local matters that matter most to our area. We aim to share stories that present solutions to urgent challenges, along with investigative reporting that keeps those in power answerable.

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A farewell note from CEO Peter Bhatia

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | Peter Bhatia

To our readers and supporters:Today, May 15, 2025, Houston Landing says goodbye. After more than two years of producing independent, nonpartisan, deeply reported journalism, we have ceased operations due to financial challenges. While this outcome is disappointing, I also feel an immense amount of gratitude and pride in what our team built and accomplished. When Houston Landing launched in February 2023, we set out to make Houston better, one story at a time.
‘All our hopes vanished’: After end of CBP One, Venezuelan family faces dilemma

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | Anna-Catherine Brigida

Lauritz Cayuna de Melo was lounging at her home on the outskirts of Mexico City one evening in March when she got a call from an unknown number. “How weird,” she thought. Her family in Venezuela and husband Jesús Melo in Houston usually called through WhatsApp. About six weeks before, she had gone to the Venezuelan embassy in Mexico City to put herself and her two kids, Esteban and Eva, on a list to return to the country they hadn’t seen in eight years.
Who are HOU?: Meet Scot More, an advocate addressing homelessness at Houston’s Homeless Court

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | Fiza Kuzhiyil

This Q&A is an installment of Houston Landing’s Who are HOU? series that aims to tell stories celebrating the melting pot of communities, cultures and experiences that define this city. From personal histories to challenges to everyday triumphs, each story is told in the words of the person being interviewed to capture their voices and the journeys that shape Houston’s identity. Scot More spends his days advocating for the city’s most vulnerable population — Houston’s unhoused community.
Lawsuit against former candidate accused of sexual misconduct settled out of court

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | Paul Cobler

A lawsuit accusing a former Congressional candidate and a member of his campaign staff of sexual misconduct in 2023 was dropped earlier this month following a settlement out of court, according to Harris County District Clerk’s Office records. Details of the settlement between Pervez Agwan, a Democratic primary candidate in the 2024 Congressional District 18 race, and Maha Chishtey, a junior staffer with the campaign, were not made public.
HISD found an employee sent a lewd video to a student. Parents were left in the dark.

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | Asher Lehrer-Small

Within three months of receiving a report that Worthing High School employee Lloyd Ford allegedly sent a Snapchat video to an 18-year-old student of himself masturbating and solicited the teen for sex, Houston ISD administrators “substantiated” the claim and fired him, according to district records and statements.
Here one day, gone the next: OST/South Union residents furious over removal of community mural

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | Monique Welch

Earlier this year, Joan Alexander, a longtime Old Spanish Trail/South Union resident, was making a routine shopping trip to the Renaissance Center to join Planet Fitness. When she got there, however, she was surprised to see a familiar mural missing from the outside wall of the gym on Scott Street. The vibrant, interactive, augmented-reality mural had been a beloved cultural fixture in the neighborhood for almost five years.
Amid hundreds of deaths each year, here’s how Houston is spending opioid settlement dollars

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | José Luis Martínez |Jose Martinez |José Martinez |Jose Martínez

More than 600 Harris County residents died of an opioid overdose in 2023, an average of 11 individuals each week. That same year, the city of Houston obtained the first round of opioid abatement funds it is set to receive over the next two decades as part of a statewide legal settlement with pharmaceutical companies and distributors.
Houston passed an ordinance to combat wage theft 12 years ago. How is it working?

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | José Luis Martínez |Jose Martinez |José Martinez |Jose Martínez

In late 2013, applause echoed through Houston’s City Council chamber following the unanimous approval of a wage-theft ordinance that would enable the city to investigate, track and penalize city contractors that failed to pay employees overtime, minimum wage or any other compensation owed to them. Nearly 12 years later, the ordinance has delivered mixed results at best.
U.S. Citizens twice as likely to be charged with crime in Harris County, data shows

3 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | Eileen Grench |Adriana Rezal |Anna-Catherine Brigida

U.S. citizens were more than twice as likely to be charged with a crime in Harris County in 2023 than adults who don’t hold U.S. citizenship, according to an exclusive data analysis by the Houston Landing. The analysis, based on the most recent data on the county’s adult population and criminal charges, shows that U.S. citizens have been more likely to be charged with a crime in Harris County since at least 2015, the earliest data collected by the Landing through public records law.
‘Don't want to see another child get hit’: Spring ISD families call for road safety upgrades

4 weeks ago | houstonlanding.org | Brooke Kushwaha

Seven years ago, a Ford F-150 truck barreled into then-12-year-old Tamia Tolliver as she crossed a busy street walking to school, shattering her legs. The truck driver apparently hadn’t seen Tolliver as she navigated an intersection with no crosswalk or guard outside Spring ISD’s Claughton Middle School. “She looked like she was dead, the way she was,” said Tolliver’s grandfather, Marvin Jenkins, who found her crumpled in the intersection after rushing to the scene.