City eyes code amendments to increase affordable housing for UT students

City Council members hope that a series of amendments to a planning tool can increase housing affordability and the quality of life for University of Texas students, with the possibility of bringing a much-needed grocery store to the West Campus area.

On Thursday, Council will consider a resolution that calls for a series of changes to the University Neighborhood Overlay, a density bonus program that has been amended seven times since it was first passed in 2004 in an effort to add more housing to serve UT students.

The resolution calls for ordinance changes that would require windows in all bedrooms, make all bedrooms “functionally equivalent” whether they are priced affordably or at market rates, expand the UNO to more areas of the campus to allow some increases in building heights, take steps to increase commercial activation of ground-floor square footage and make assorted improvements to aid pedestrian and bicyclists.

The city would also take steps to improve the AHOST portal for students to find affordable housing, allow students additional flexibility and support during move-in dates and extend the required affordability period for existing affordable units within the overlay.

The city manager is expected to deliver the final language of the ordinances by next spring.

A case study analyzing the effectiveness of UNO to date found it has produced 572 income-restricted units and 911 beds, which falls far short of the more than 24,000 students who receive financial aid and could qualify for affordable housing.

The case study reads, in part: “UNO’s impact on market-rate housing affordability is mostly positive. It hasn’t been able to provide affordable housing for all eligible students. However, it has shielded them from the intense rent growth seen in the rest of Austin. The program is unable to meet the current demand for affordable housing near campus.”

Council Member Zo Qadri, who represents the portion of the city including the UT campus and sponsored the resolution, said he made affordability and quality of life for students a primary concern during his campaign. He said many of the proposed changes to the overlay build off of other recent Council initiatives, such as addressing the need for windows and safe entries for sleeping areas.

“What we’re working on when it comes to housing justice is going off of what we had done with the windows in bedrooms resolution, making sure that bedrooms have natural light … making sure that inspections are done in these units and these apartment complexes,” he said, adding that a recent walk around West Campus reinforced that sidewalk improvements are needed to address the growing use of electric scooters.

“Expanding sidewalks is really important to us, along with parking scooters better and maybe having like docking stations for scooters that are all over the place, not only in West campus, but throughout the city. I think generally (disability) improvements are needed. We were walking on a sidewalk and there’s three scooters on the ground and that, obviously, is a deterrent for a lot of folks who might be in a wheelchair or just have any other disability.”

Council Member Ryan Alter said the effectiveness of the overlay to this point makes it the best way to address the changing conditions and market realities for UT students.

“It’s recognition that as we have this broad affordability discussion that students not only are an essential fabric of what makes Austin special, but have special unique needs,” he said. “It will require some additional inspections just to make sure that the building remains code compliant, but what it really is focused at is if someone is going to do new construction or redevelopment or within this item, expanding some of the (housing) opportunities to Dobie and into West Campus, that when they do that they will have to have a certain level of dispersion of affordability throughout the project.”

Isabel Webb Carey, co-founder of the University Tenants Union, has worked with other stakeholders to help Qadri and other Council members identify the areas of most concern for students, such as the lack of a full-size grocery store nearby or the continued price growth in housing throughout the campus area.

“We’ve seen a slight downturn over two years, but it’s still the case that some students will pay more for their rent than they will for their tuition. And so students and families, when they start financial planning to send their kid to college, they now have to factor in the fact that students may have to pay up to $1,500 for a place to live in West Campus,” she said. “It’s shown that students do best academically when they live close to university, but it’s also the fact that they can go see friends and they can be a part of organizations. They can get involved in advocacy. They can do all these things that really does open doors to them. And it makes college what college is supposed to be at its best.”

Photo by Vuemobi, CC BY-SA 4.0, link.

The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here.