Travis County last week reopened a program with millions of dollars in funding to help people make their rent and mortgage payments. Initially the county said it could accept applications through September, but staff members now say they will likely close the program this month because they’ve received so many applications. County Commissioner Brigid Shea […]
Housing
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Austin, Travis County aim to add tens of thousands of new units to meet demand
As population and living demands explode in the greater Austin area, the Travis County Commissioners Court is grappling with the twin issues of affordable housing and housing needs. Seventy-thousand new units are needed in Austin and Travis County over the next five years to keep pace with population growth, the county projects, while the Commissioners […]
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Housing department provides update on 2018 affordable housing bond expenditures
As part of its efforts to ease the city’s affordability crisis, Austin’s Housing and Planning Department stopped by the City Council Housing and Planning Committee last Tuesday to brief members on the status of affordable housing programs. The briefing tracked the $250 million in funding approved by voters in 2018. Breaking down the spending, Housing and […]
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Airbnb makes renewed push to reach STR agreement with City Council
Short-term rental platform Airbnb is pushing City Council to change its long-held stance against working with companies that help STRs to operate and, in the process, take business away from area hotels. A representative from Airbnb spoke to the Arts Commission last week and offered a draft letter of support that several arts organizations and […]
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Council eyes new protections for renters
City Council passed two resolutions Thursday aimed at protecting renters from eviction and granting them more organizing rights. “With the escalating housing costs that we see and with the daily emergencies that we know so many families face, it’s clear to me that we need permanent renter protections,” said Council Member Greg Casar, who sponsored […]
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Austin to spend $65 million this year to reduce displacement near future transit lines
The city of Austin is preparing to spend $65 million this year on efforts to prevent people who live near future public transit lines from being priced out of their homes. The single largest transit expansion in Austin’s history is expected to increase demand for property near frequent transit routes, potentially making affordability problems worse […]
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County invests in nonprofits and cash assistance to prevent evictions
On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court approved a series of investment strategies to prevent evictions and smooth the potentially rocky transition away from the federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance program to other forms of rental assistance. “The key questions today, court members, are the strategy to provide eviction support … keeping in mind that […]
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County processes final rental assistance applications, but will need more money to prevent evictions
On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court received news that only 443 applications for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program – a recently discontinued county program – have yet to be processed, a number significantly down from last week’s 995. The rest, according to county Health and Human Services, have already been paid. The new number, […]
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Amid affordability crisis, Austin will consider studying what it costs to build new housing
Austin City Council members on Thursday asked city staff to look into what it would cost to analyze how much it, well, costs to build new housing. The study, if given the green light early next year, would also focus on how this impacts the price of buying or renting a home and what the […]
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County approves bond sale to finance Limestone Ridge senior apartments
On Tuesday, the Commissioners Court approved a resolution authorizing the sale of revenue bonds to help finance a multifamily residential development called Limestone Ridge Senior Project. The item was taken up during a Housing Finance Corporation voting session, following the adjournment of the Commissioners Court for the day. The development is located at 7011 McKinney Falls […]
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To boost housing supply, Council to allow residential use in commercial zones
Of all the policies to arise from City Council’s decreed Austin Housing Affordability and Supply Week, the most substantial is allowing residential use in commercial zones, a move that could open up capacity for tens of thousands of new homes. “Allowing residential in commercial I think can be very impactful,” said Council Member Ann Kitchen, one […]
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Officials are brainstorming solutions to Austin’s booming housing costs. Here are 4 of their ideas.
Tenants bidding on a rental home. Potential homebuyers offering $200,000 more than the listed price. Nearly 90 prospective buyers angling for one home. While these are just anecdotes, the data bears it out: The median sales price of a home rose more than $100,000 earlier this year, and rents have been climbing at the fastest rate ever […]