Wendy Rivera sat in a metal folding chair outside the shelter for Hurricane Harvey evacuees in Southeast Austin. She shared a 44-ounce convenience store soda with her husband, Ramiro. Ramiro, tall, soft-spoken and tattooed, used his body and a white towel to shade the two from the demanding sun. “We’re pretty wiped out,” said Wendy. […]
Housing
Posted inHousing
Council members concerned about fees for ADUs
Council Member Delia Garza is worried that proposed increases in building fees are going to hit middle-income homeowners who are seeking to build accessory dwelling units the hardest. At a Thursday City Council meeting over the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Garza pressed the head of the Development Services Department on the fee […]
Posted inHousing
Accelerator targets city’s ‘screaming crisis’ of housing affordability
A new program from the Impact Hub Austin social improvement accelerator has set its sights on solving the growing affordability crisis facing Austin’s middle- and lower-income communities. The Affordable Housing Accelerator held its kickoff event last week and brought together local politicos, established private industry leaders and hopeful startup founders looking to devise solutions for […]
Posted inHousing
Council considers new affordable housing app
As Austin faces a dire shortage of housing for its poor and working-class population, City Council is looking for every way to get developers to build units that rent at well below market rate. In many cases, developers offer to provide affordable units in exchange for entitlements that Council would otherwise be reluctant to grant, […]
Posted inPlanning
Council looks to adjust TOD density bonus programs
An extra helping of housing for low-income families could be coming to near East Austin soon thanks to action taken by City Council on Thursday. The body unanimously supported an item sponsored by Council Member Pio Renteria and aimed at allowing Austin Habitat for Humanity to build substantially more units on two adjacent properties than […]
Posted inHousing
Austin residents are beginning to move back into renovated public housing
Lisa Martinez walks around her newly renovated two-bedroom apartment at Manchaca Village, pointing out her favorite features: the blue accent wall in her living room, a new washer and dryer, and, best of all, a new dishwasher. It has made it much easier to clean up after her four kids. The 33-unit apartment complex in […]
Posted inHousing
Council struggles against displacement and segregation
“I believe that part of our role as a community and as a government is to provide protections against immoral market forces,” said Council Member Greg Casar, describing his efforts to increase affordable housing and fight economic segregation. If Casar sees some market forces as immoral, however, he doesn’t argue that city government’s duty is […]
Posted inHousing
Measure seeks ways to spread affordable housing more evenly across Austin
City Council is set to take up a measure Thursday to encourage development of affordable housing to be more evenly dispersed throughout the city. Low-income housing tends to be built in higher-poverty areas on the outer edges of the city. Rental housing that’s affordable to people earning $25,000 or less a year is scarce or […]
Posted inHousing
Austin real estate exec shifts focus to preserving middle-class housing
Looking to address the problem of Austin’s diminishing supply of middle-class housing, the head of the area’s lead real estate trade group is rounding up investors more interested in social good than eye-popping returns. David Steinwedell plans to leave his position as executive director of Urban Land Institute-Austin in September so he can lead Affordable […]
Posted inHousing
Housing bonds may be put to work early
Proponents of three proposed low-income housing projects are looking forward to Thursday when the board of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs will announce which projects have been selected to receive housing tax credits. Two of the three projects ranked most highly on the TDHCA’s list of local projects that might receive funding will […]
Posted inHousing
UT study, proposed task force would tackle residential displacement
With the issue of residents being priced out of their longtime neighborhoods becoming a topic of discussion in most city initiatives, Mayor Steve Adler said the time has come to tackle the issue directly. That was what prompted Adler to announce earlier this month his hope to form a task force on displacement and gentrification […]
Posted inHousing
Labor shortages, construction costs make it tough to build affordable homes in Austin
The rising cost of construction has made it harder to build affordable homes in Central Austin, housing analysts said after the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin released its midyear housing forecast Thursday. Researchers expressed general optimism about the growth Austin has seen for years but said labor shortages, increased construction costs and permitting regulations have […]