Video Stills: Austin Cable Access

The Austin public dialogue was held August 12, 1999 at Bank of America. Six Panelists were asked to address two questions: What are the principal affordable housing problems Austin faces? What are the solutions to the affordable housing problems?

The discussion was moderated by TxLIHIS Board Chairman, and Professor Emeritus of History (University of Texas), Standish Meachum. Opening remarks were given by Tom Sauceda (Bank of America.)

Dr. Elizabeth Mueller, The New School for Social Research/ Center for Public Policy Priorities

Problems: (1) Too few housing units affordable to local residents, especially for low-income people. At the end of '98 the vacancy rate for apartments was at about 3%. Rents per square foot have risen between '90 and '98 by 68%. (2) New apartments are aimed disproportionately at higher end renters. At the same time government programs that provide incentives for the production of affordable are not keeping up with need. There is a need for more local control of these funds. The public housing authority has had its budget cut. That's really one of the few places that families at 30% of mfi can go. (3) Currently affordable units are at risk of becoming unaffordable. Several government programs that offered rental housing developers time-limited incentives to build affordable units are expiring. Private landlords are now able to raise their rents to market levels unless they are offered new incentives by the federal government. There are well over a thousand such units in Austin at risk of being lost.

Solutions: (1) Increase the resources devoted to increasing the supply of affordable units- proposals like the Housing Trust fund are an excellent idea. Non-profit organizations, especially community based ones, are a good investment because they remain committed to maintaining the affordability of their developments long after subsidies expire. (2) Increasing public awareness and commitment is a critical part of the solution. (3) With smart growth with its emphasis on infill and increased density there is the potential to push up land and housing prices, pushing low-income renters and first time homebuyers to the suburbs or beyond. The redevelopment of Mueller airport provides new opportunities; the city could require developers to set aside 15% of new units as affordable and could suggest those units be dispersed throughout the development instead of segregated into one little pocket.

Sam Persley, Deputy Director Austin Tenants Council

Problems: (1) Lack of public awareness regarding the benefit of having housing programs designed to assist low-income families. (2) We have not offered the kind of incentives that would attract a large number of investors, builders, and businesses to commit themselves to the housing needs of the underprivileged. (3) Lack of funds to build or maintain units for low-income families.

Deputy Director Austin Tenants Council

Solutions: (1) A public awareness campaign that might include a column in the newspapers dedicated to affordable housing issues and targeted at builders and developers. Increase the incentives to developers to build affordable housing and give credit to those who do.

Mayor Pro-Tem Jackie Goodman

Mayor Pro-Tem Jackie Goodman

Problems: What I think is the most important issue from a policy view we have got to get rid of the labels - we're not talking about income, or houses, we're talking about the people. Low-income is not a dirty word, it is merely a condition. Solutions: Public awareness and public education. You've got to have community support. It is time for us to get together because what we need is revenue. We've got find innovative ways to take the revenue we have and make it grow. There are other housing finance corps around the country that have gotten out of the box, while we're just pushing down the flaps.

Paul Hilgers Director of Housing and Community Development, City of Austin.

Director of Housing and Community Development, City of Austin.

Problems: Cost of housing in Austin and how fast it's gone up. The cost of housing in Austin has gone up 70% in the last 9 years. There has been an unequal rise in wage rates. Wage rates at best have only gone up 30% in the past 9 years. 3rd reason. We need to work together to come up with a collaborative, comprehensive housing agenda.

Solutions: (1) To get the Housing Authority to work with their family self sufficiency program to get residents out of public housing and into mainstream rental housing and ultimately into home ownership if that's what they choose. (2) To work to build nonprofit capacity and to create new nonprofits like neighborhood housing investment boards that can go out and look at their own community, to do the things that Guadalupe has done, to do the things that Blackland has done, to invite the kind of housing that they want. We need to look at the incentive basis for building housing. (3) We're looking at proposing to the council a SMART housing initiative, which stands for safe, mixed-income, accessible, reasonably priced, and transit oriented. And if we can build homes that meet those standards then we should be able to provide development fees and other services to create that kind of housing in the community. To expand the capability and the response of our Housing Finance Corp, to look at more tax-free bond financing for our nonprofits, to get more nonprofits trained in how to use that particular tool to create more affordable rental housing.

Mayor Kirk Watson

Problems: When I got here in 1981 you had people with masters degrees waiting on you at Magnolia café, you had people with engineering degrees playing bass in rock and roll bands. And the good news was, they could afford to do it. That's what gave Austin its neat, eclectic flavor. Austin's never been a rich person's town. We don't want to become a city of the rich and the poor. We need appropriate equity - we need to provide for everybody. I think we have the public will, but we need to raise the level of public awareness. It is not just a city government problem. It is a community wide problem that needs to be addressed by our entire community.

Mayor of Austin, Kirk Watson

Solutions: (1) We've created a SMART growth matrix. The City of Austin is currently involved in two pieces of property that are going to become residential. In both cases this council is setting aside a certain percentage to be affordable or reasonably priced. I think that as we look at redeveloping Mueller (former airport), that's one of the things we ought to be thinking about. Again there can be incentives created that don't require money coming out of your pocket because the city already owns the land. (2) I believe we have a city council that is committed to the creation of an affordable housing trust fund. The difficulty is going to be in finding the money and finding sufficient money. I also believe we have to find a source of funding that is long-term. (3) We have very high (development) fees here in Austin; we're the highest in the region. We have to evaluate whether we are imposing fees with unintended consequences; that we causing the cost of housing to be more than what it should be.

Karen Paup, Co-Director Texas Low Income Housing Information Service

Problems: According to HUD there are about 50,000 low-income households that have a housing need. Most of these households are renters and the biggest problem they have is paying the rent. These are people whose income is lessn than 1/2 of what the average Austinite makes. This includes people with disabilities, people living on minimum social security benefits, and a whole lot of people who work - a lot of single parents whose wages, at $5-$10 dollars per hour just aren't enough to cover the rent. How much housing costs. In that income range people could afford to pay $100-$500 dollars per month.We all know there isn't a large supply of that kind of housing in Austin.

Co-Director, Texas Low Income Housing Information Service

Solutions: Establishing a local housing trust fund. Three key elements to the Austin Housing Opportunity Trust: (1) Dedicate the funds to those families who make less than half of what the average Austin family makes. Within that funding we would set aside half of funding for people who are extremely low-income (2) A dedicated resource of $10 million per year at least. Other cities have mostly used some sort of fee on development to fund their trust funds (3) Lastly, we want to design a program to produce quality housing. If a house costs $70,000 to build then putting a four or five dollar thousand subsidy on it isn't going to work. If that's how much it costs to build a house then that's how much we have to spend. If we set up a program with quality in mind then we can experience the success that other housing trust funds around the country have realized.