Voting against a request to postpone the case, the Planning Commission unanimously approved staff’s recommendation to grant a portion of east side public housing project Rosewood Courts historic zoning at its Mar. 13 meeting. Controversy has centered around whether all of the 1939 public housing buildings should be zoned historic or if only some of […]
Housing
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Austin could use rising property values to create affordable housing
City Council Member Greg Casar wants to get the most out of the hundreds of millions of dollars that the city is poised to spend to upgrade its transportation corridors in the coming years. The improvements coming to Austin’s corridors will naturally contribute to increasing property values in the surrounding area. If the city does […]
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Council endorses new Chalmers Courts project
With the Council chambers full of cheering supporters, City Council on Thursday unanimously endorsed an award of low-income housing tax credits from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for a multifamily development at East Fourth and Chicon streets to be called Pathways at Chalmers Courts East Apartments. It will replace the current Chalmers […]
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Housing repair funds, 3-D printed homes pitched as affordability solutions
For the past several weeks, nine local nonprofits, government agencies and private companies have been mapping out new solutions to the city’s housing affordability problem. Last night, they presented their ideas at the Impact Hub, a co-working space on North Lamar, which organized the effort. Ashley Phillips, managing director of Impact Hub, said the process […]
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Council approves funding for study on housing discrimination
City Council is moving forward with plans for the region’s first fair housing assessment. The effort aims to shed light on issues of housing discrimination across Central Texas. The federal Fair Housing Act was designed to protect people from discrimination when renting, buying or financing a home, but biased practices persist in cities across the […]
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Austin residents protest mobile home investment class
A few dozen protesters gathered in downtown Austin on Friday to march down East Fifth Street and into the Westin hotel, where a class on investing in mobile home parks was reportedly being held. The protesters, dressed in graduation caps and gowns, held signs calling for justice and a “diploma” from Colorado-based Mobile Home University […]
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In this new neighborhood, none of the homeowners own the land
Laura Soto, 38, sands several planks of wood that will serve as the trim for the outside of her new home. A few feet from her lies a plank of wood labeled “front porch,” another labeled “door.” On a break from working, Soto talks color palette. “The trim will be the rich white, the outside […]
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As foreclosures rise, has the Greater Austin housing market finally peaked?
Realtor Barrett Raven was showing one of his clients a duplex off of Cameron Road. Matthew Weilbacher was interested in buying one of the units, maybe the entire duplex, but he was wrestling with how to make use of the home’s oddly sloping backyard. Weilbacher peered over the neighbor’s fence and decided he could build […]
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East Austin community looks to AISD for affordable housing
At a September meeting of the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees, almost half of the public comments weren’t about academic issues. Instead, they were about housing. Students, parents, teachers and other community members were asking the board to create affordable housing at the former Allan Elementary School on the east side. It wasn’t […]
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Rents rise despite new housing keeping pace with growth, study finds
Developers that want to build low-income housing in wealthier neighborhoods should engage more with neighborhood groups to convince them of the merits of affordable housing. That’s one recommendation in a study published today by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The study assessed the state of low- and middle-income housing in Austin with input […]
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A new development is bringing ‘micro-units’ to East Austin
A new development going up in East Austin hopes to provide a more affordable option for home ownership. The Fourth & condos in East Austin feature what are called “micro-units,” efficiency apartments that span just a few hundred square feet. “It is laid out to where you have a living space, you have a bookshelf […]
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People with criminal records are often locked out of Austin’s housing market
After almost a year of searching, Annette Price is settling into her new apartment in North Central Austin. She lives alone in the one-bedroom unit with her dog, Candy. But Price doesn’t totally feel at home. This apartment complex is one of the few places in the city where the 52-year-old could get approved for […]