Real estate industry leaders put affordable housing bonds under the light

Rosie Truelove summarizes the city’s many efforts and successes in maintaining and creating more affordable housing in a quick look at what’s happening in one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets. summarized in

At a breakfast panel at the Urban Land Institute in Austin last week, which considered a $350 million affordable housing proposal on November 8, the director of the city’s housing planning division described the never-ending catch-up game. Did.

“We’re making progress toward our 10-year goal, but we’re lagging behind in producing new affordable housing units. We’re making progress, but we need to go further. ”

As one of three panelists discussing the city’s urgent need for a more affordable housing stock and more housing in general, Truelove will add 60,000 affordable housing units over 10 years. We have reviewed the complex progress made to meet the goals of strategic housing planning that called for: Successes include adding large amounts of new housing near new transportation corridors, and building income-limited housing in areas of high opportunity, but thwarting the urban affordability crisis. The price to settle is still considerable.

“This document establishes a clear ten-year timeframe, establishes clear goals and ways to track progress, builds partnerships, and identifies the resources and funding mechanisms needed to complete the work. It emphasizes the need to do so,” she said. “When we did this in 2016, if we could ‘trick’ ourselves into a situation where we covered and cleared all of our affordable housing needs, in 2016 we had an $11 billion need. , you can imagine what it would be like now.”

The new housing bond will refresh the coffers for projects led by affordability-focused groups such as HousingWorks. With his $250 million from the 2018 bond election nearly exhausted, panelist John Michael Cortez said voters need to recommit to affordable housing, telling the city council pressure to proceed with much-needed planning and building code changes.

“We have done the easy things very well. The great disruption of the real world gives us the opportunity to achieve these goals and the results we set for ourselves in our strategic home blueprint and Imagine Austin,” he said.

“We need a comprehensive rewrite of the Land Development Act. There have been several actions over the last few years, with policy changes and ordinances incorporated into a comprehensive rewrite. I believe that without very big changes, we can’t take action that will make a big difference in affordable housing.”

Housing and Planning Officer Erica Leake said one of the next policy changes the council will consider would enact equitable, transportation-oriented development, with affordability as one of the main considerations. I said I covered the method. A draft of it will be submitted in the coming weeks and is expected to be adopted by the Board in December.

“If there are large numbers of people at risk of displacement, a range of policy tools should be used there. If not, those regions may need different changes,” she said.

In discussing initiatives funded by housing bonds, such as income-restricted property repair programs and rental housing development assistance for affordable projects, TruLove is dedicated to affordable housing. The money that can be used to acquire properties across the city will be one of the most effective uses.

“If you look at a map of where affordable properties are, you can see that they are heavily concentrated in the Eastern Crescent. If you can buy properties across Austin, you can secure income-restricted units across Austin.”

of austin monitorHer work is made possible by donations from the community. Our reports are sometimes targeted at donors, but we take care to separate our business and editorial efforts while maintaining transparency. Our Code of Ethics is explained here.