Houston, Harris County approve housing funding deal for Midtown zone

Houston City Council approved a new interlocal agreement Tuesday for Texas Reinvestment Zone Number 2, known as the Midtown Zone, sending a slice of Harris County’s tax growth in Midtown toward homeless services and affordable housing through tax year 2050.

The ordinance ties together the City of Houston, Harris County, Reinvestment Zone Number Two and the Midtown Redevelopment Authority. Texas Reinvestment Zone Number 2 is the Midtown zone, and the city keeps a document archive for the district that includes the creation ordinance, project-plan amendments, interlocal agreements and zone-term extension records.

Under the agreement, 10% of Harris County’s increment will go to the city’s Homeless Housing Funding Account. One-third of the county’s increment will be reserved for county affordable-housing projects inside the TIRZ boundaries. No specific projects are in motion yet, so the vote set the money rules before individual developments were named.

The agreement also adds reporting requirements, project-eligibility rules and audits. In October 2024, Houston officials authorized audits for all 28 city TIRZ districts, and the city later appropriated $17,245,906.03 in tax-increment funds for multiple zones, including Midtown, from tax-year 2023 collections.

Project-plan amendments were updated to reflect Harris County participating with 100% of its tax increment in multiple zones, following agreements considered by Council on July 8 and July 15, 2026. The Midtown Redevelopment Authority and the zone work in tandem to recycle tax-increment growth back into the neighborhood for infrastructure, public spaces and related improvements.

Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research found homeowners’ insurance premiums rose 17% in Harris County to $2,303 and 13% in Houston to $2,166 in one year, while eviction filings stayed elevated.