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Cheap housing makes Houston welcoming
A diverse city
Depending on the ranking, Houston is the most diverse or second most diverse major city in the US. Part of that is heritage: this was once Mexico, and Houston is also a historically Black city and one of the best landing spots for Black professionals, with nearly a fifth of all businesses Black-owned and about 20% of teachers and 20% of doctors Black.
Houston has also been a welcoming city to refugees, from Vietnamese relocating during the 1970s to the quarter of a million people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Cheap housing's payoff
Thanks to infill, Houston adds housing and people without seeing its housing prices shoot skyward. Because housing and cost of living are relatively cheap, construction jobs, food and service jobs, and manufacturing jobs can more than make ends meet.
How did Vietnamese refugees come to Houston?
After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the United States resettled hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees across the country. Many Vietnamese fishermen found the Gulf Coast's shrimping and fishing work familiar, and Texas's warm climate and job market drew families who followed. The US Census Bureau counts the Houston area among the largest Vietnamese American communities in the United States. Shops and restaurants along Bellaire Boulevard grew into a district often called Asiatown.
Why did so many Katrina evacuees pick Houston?
Houston sits about 350 miles west of New Orleans along Interstate 10, a drive of five or six hours. Within days of the storm in late August 2005, the city opened the Astrodome and neighboring buildings as shelters. Its large job market and plentiful rental housing let many evacuees stay. Houston took in more evacuees than any other city.
Why is Houston among the most diverse cities?
The Port of Houston and the energy industry drew workers from around the world for more than a century. The Texas Medical Center, often described as the largest medical complex in the world, recruits doctors and researchers internationally. Rice University's Kinder Institute, which runs the Houston Area Survey, has documented the region's rapid growth in Hispanic and Asian residents since the 1980s.
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