New report unlocks ‘Affordability Unlocked’

A new report from the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute has examined Austin’s Affordability Unlocked housing initiative in comparison to other affordable housing programs in seven major U.S. cities. The report – Local and State Policies to Improve Access to Affordable Housing – looked at the basic components of Austin’s plan since it was instituted in 2019 and examined the effectiveness of similar long-standing policies around zoning incentives in Colorado, Maryland and California. It found that in strong housing markets, those incentives can make affordable housing projects more appealing to developers and can lead to a modest increase in housing supply, especially at the higher end of the income spectrum. The study also notes as of July 2023, there were 76 approved projects representing 7,678 housing units, with 5,330 of them priced at affordable levels for lower-income households. That result caused the study’s authors to find “it appears that the program is meeting its intended affordability goals.”