Austin’s Planning Commission meets every other Tuesday in the cavernous chambers of City Hall. Members assemble virtually and in person to hear requests and pleas from the public about what should be built in the city. Plot by plot, these volunteers vote yea or nay to changes that will shape Austin. On a night in […]
Housing
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Mayoral candidates outline plans to make housing more affordable
Since the pandemic began, most Austinites have felt the effects of increased rent, higher property taxes, or home prices growing increasingly out of reach. With rising costs forcing people out of their neighborhoods (or out of the city entirely), candidates hoping to become Austin’s next mayor in November agree that something has to be done […]
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Development panelists share thoughts, and some silence, on Austin’s affordability issues
It took a question about the political pressures involved in the slow-moving, fractured process of updating the Land Development Code to bring an uncomfortable silence to a recent panel of real estate leaders discussing housing affordability issues in Austin. During last week’s Urban Land Institute Austin breakfast panel talk about affordability, moderator Theresa Alvarez, CEO […]
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Mobile home park residents challenge developer after receiving 60-day notice to vacate
Dewain Willmore calls his home in the Congress Mobile Home and RV Park a “sanctuary.” “Once you get off the street in here,” said Willmore, who has lived in the park for 21 years, “everything just slows down.” Over the past two decades, Willmore has become a leader in this close-knit community on South Congress […]
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Planning Commission forms housing policy working groups
Amid a housing crisis some say is exacerbated by the city’s Land Development Code, Planning commissioners decided to take matters into their own hands by creating working groups tasked with studying and proposing changes that might help lower the cost of housing. “(The Land Development Code) was bad 10 years ago, and now it’s just […]
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Austin builders are starting a lot of new homes. Finishing them is not so simple.
Alexandra Spurlock bought a new three-bedroom home in Hutto, about a half-hour drive north of downtown Austin. When she signed the papers last summer, the home was nothing more than a plot of dirt. The builder said the house would be move-in ready by February. Now it’s July 2022, and the house is still not […]
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Affordable housing advocates want voters to decide $300M bond proposal
Community groups concerned with affordability issues in the Austin housing market are pushing City Council to approve language for a bond proposal in November that could raise $300 million to build more homes and fund programs related to housing opportunities. A political action committee called Affordable Housing Bond PAC was organized this month to help […]
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Council OKs first use of Project Connect money for housing
With little fanfare Thursday, City Council, acting as the board of the Austin Housing Finance Corporation, approved using Project Connect anti-displacement dollars for the first time to purchase apartment complexes for low-income residents. The two complexes AHFC will acquire are at 615 W. St. Johns Ave. and 2000 Woodward St. In order to purchase the […]
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Council approves permanent supportive housing in Hancock
City Council Thursday unanimously approved a rezoning for Cady Lofts, a project that will bring 100 homes for people experiencing homelessness to 1004-1008 E. 39th St. in the Hancock neighborhood. The project includes studio units in a 3- and 4-story building complete with on-site services for residents in a setup called permanent supportive housing. The […]
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Hotel industry rebound pinches city’s acquisition strategy to solve homelessness
The city may have to shift away from its strategy of converting hotels and motels into temporary and permanent supportive housing sites for the homeless, due to a rebound in the lodging market that has raised prices and cut down on available properties. Tuesday’s City Council work session included a progress report from homeless strategy […]
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New report dives into the details of housing in Austin
HousingWorks Austin has released its latest annual report on Austin’s housing market and supply of affordable housing, underscoring not only the drastic increases in home prices and rents many have experienced but also disparities in affordable housing supply across the city. “The high cost of housing and short supply of affordable housing in certain parts […]
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Travis County opens applications to very low-income residents for housing voucher waitlist
Next month, on the first of July at 8 a.m., a relatively small number of low-income residents will get the opportunity to settle or continue to stay in Travis County. That’s because the Housing Authority of Travis County is opening up its waitlist for Section 8 housing choice voucher applications to 500 people. Eligible applicants […]