Following HOME approvals, Council calls for affordability programs to aid longtime residents

Lower- and middle-income homeowners are the target population for a resolution approved by City Council on Thursday intended to create the financing needed to build more homes on existing lots.

The resolution, which was led by Council Member José Velásquez, was approved on the consent agenda with Council Member Mackenzie Kelly voting against. The item was a followup to the recent HOME and HOME 2 policy slates that encouraged infill housing by greatly reducing the minimum lot size needed to construct single-family homes.

Velásquez said many longtime residents who had lived in their homes since long before Austin became a tech industry boomtown will need assistance to add income-generating housing units to their properties or risk being displaced by rising taxes and cost-of-living pressures.

There were three main components in the instructions to the city manager and staff.

The first was focused on access to capital, with direction to identify lending institutions open to low- and middle-income business, identify possible tax rebates for homeowners, look for low-interest and forgivable loans, expand the city’s down payment assistance program and examine what fees could be waived to reduce building costs.

An interdepartmental task force called for in the resolution is expected to find ways to simplify the process of adding additional units to a property, with the explicit goal of reducing the cost of construction.

The third component calls for the expansion of educational and technical assistance programs available to low- and middle-income homeowners so they can take advantage of as many financial tools and assistance programs as possible.

The educational and technical assistance portions of the resolution in many ways resemble a similar resolution Velásquez successfully pushed for late last year as Council was considering the first round of HOME policies and ordinance changes.

In a City Council Message Board posting ahead of Thursday’s meeting, he said response from the District 3 community he represents showed great concern for homeowners who likely must add units to their properties if they wish to remain in their neighborhoods. Without significant assistance from the city and relevant partners, he said many of those residents would be forced to sell to developers looking to capitalize on the city’s push for density.

“The reality is that there are significant costs and hurdles associated with building an additional unit, which is why we’re being proactive in trying to make this opportunity accessible to homeowners at all income levels and try to mitigate displacement of longtime Austinites from their communities. We all know that there is no one-size-fits-all measure when it comes to making Austin an affordable place for everyone,” he said prior to the vote to approve the consent agenda.

“Today’s resolution builds on that by looking into public and private partnerships to allow homeowners access to capital, seeking out ways to streamline and refine city processes, and by making sure that our community is fully informed about how they can access entitlements through HOME and protect and grow generational wealth,” he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool, who was the main proponent of both HOME packages, said the city must do whatever it can to help longtime residents receive the benefits available from the land code changes that will cause a substantial increase in housing units.

“When we started working on HOME 1 and 2, we knew that a critical component would be making sure that as many people as possible could take advantage of these policies. Now, with this access to capital and affordability initiative, we can empower families who are struggling to adapt and prosper in our evolving city,” she said, naming AARP Texas and Preservation Austin among the groups involved in its creation and passage. “We crafted this initiative to keep Austin accessible and affordable. We are empowering homeowners to preserve their wealth and property for future generations and give low- and middle-income homebuyers a fighting chance in Austin.”

Photo by Larry D. Moore [CC BY-SA 4.0].

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