The city is accepting proposals from community organizations involved in affordable housing and related services to apply for some of the $20 million available for anti-displacement efforts related to Project Connect. At a news conference Monday, leaders from the Austin Housing Finance Corporation and the Housing and Planning Department explained that there is about $64 […]
gentrification
Posted inHousing
Austin to spend $65 million this year to reduce displacement near future transit lines
The city of Austin is preparing to spend $65 million this year on efforts to prevent people who live near future public transit lines from being priced out of their homes. The single largest transit expansion in Austin’s history is expected to increase demand for property near frequent transit routes, potentially making affordability problems worse […]
Posted inAustin
City names anti-displacement officer as real estate prices climb
As Austin’s real estate prices continue to soar, the city has named a new point person in charge of reducing the displacement of residents from affordable housing units. Nefertitti Jackmon recently started her new role as the community displacement prevention officer within the Housing and Planning Department. Jackmon previously worked on programs related to displacement […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
ULI panel pushes real estate partnerships to help preserve, create arts spaces
With creative businesses and artists all over the city facing displacement issues caused by rising property values, the time is coming for the local real estate and development community to find ways to mix arts and music uses into new mixed-use construction. That was the message Wednesday at the Urban Land Institute’s monthly breakfast series, […]
Posted inDevelopment
Austin neighborhoods facing gentrification pressures, Dallas Fed finds
Recent analysis on incomes and migration patterns in Texas shows that Austin and three other Texas metro areas – Dallas, Houston and San Antonio – have seen significant patterns of gentrification in recent years. The recently released research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows that incomes and education levels have greatly increased in […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Garza says code needs ‘equity overlay’ to address historic development patterns
Reading through the draft Land Development Code over the last several weeks, Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza noted that, for all its pages and nuance, the draft has a blind spot around housing equity. Realizing there was no single tool to address displacement of the city’s most vulnerable residents, Garza consulted with her office and […]
Posted inAustin
City outlines displacement mitigation strategy based on People’s Plan
Following a Council directive last year to analyze the recommendations put forth in the People’s Plan, city staffers from a variety of departments have released a Displacement Mitigation Strategy report detailing an approach to contend with gentrification and displacement in the city of Austin. The 16-page People’s Plan, which was unveiled by Fred McGhee, Jane […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Eyes on the Prii
Now we’re here… As public engagement sessions go, the April 27 kickoff for the input gathering process for the Drake Bridge Commons Project was certainly among the more novel we’ve encountered. Among the planned activities: actors portraying historic Austinites William Drake, Emma Long and Walter Seaholm in a nod to the creation of the South […]
Posted inAustin
ZAP contemplates uprooting
Last month, on Jan. 15, the Zoning and Platting Commission heard a long-awaited briefing from the University of Texas’ Uprooted study on gentrification and displacement in Austin. Dr. Jake Wegmann, one of the three authors, presented a summarized version of the study, which was completed in September 2018. The project evaluated three main factors: where […]
Posted inHousing
Council members offer mixed reviews of displacement task force recommendations
City Council took its first look Tuesday at a long list of recommendations from a task force focused on reducing displacement of Austin’s low- and middle-income populations. The report that was unanimously approved by the Anti-Displacement Task Force includes 107 ideas for how to keep people and businesses from being priced out of the city. […]
Posted inAustin
Anti-displacement recommendations take broad approach to combat gentrification
The task force convened late last year by City Council to study strategies for reversing Austin’s growing affordability and displacement problem has released its initial set of recommendations. Those recommendations include a mix of taxing mechanisms, social services and bond sales among the more than 70 suggested solutions. The Anti-Displacement Task Force will hold its […]
Posted inAustin
Austin renters and people of color are most likely to be displaced because of gentrification
A new study from the University of Texas points to widespread gentrification in Austin, stretching from northern neighborhoods to the eastern edge of South Austin. Researchers say the groups most impacted by displacement are low-income African-American and Hispanic renters. Jake Wegmann, a professor in UT’s School of Architecture who co-authored the study, said in a […]