Cardboard to Concrete: Reconstructing the Texas Colonias Threshold

Authors

Roderick R. Williams

Abstract

Third world diseases and general squalor have run rampant in the United States-Mexico border area, particularly in Texas. The problems facing residents in Texas colonias-developments often characterized by substandard housing including a lack of access to water and wastewater facilities-gained attention in Texas in the mid and late 1990s. However the Texas legislature and state and federal programs have not successfully solved the shocking problem. This note reviews the current state of Texas colonias, the conditions that allowed Texas' colonias to proliferate, and recent efforts to both halt the growth of colonias and meliorate the difficulties that current residents face every day. This Note also examines Mexico's program to address a similar situation around Mexico City and recent bills in the Texas legislature concerning colonias. While numerous state and federal programs have vastly improved the living conditions in many of these substandard developments, the dreadful conditions persist and demand a definitive solution.

Recommended Citation

Roderick R. Williams, Cardboard to Concrete: Reconstructing the Texas Colonias Threshold, 53 Hastings L.J. 705 (2002).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol53/iss3/4