Decibel
‘The Status Quo Is Just Not Sufficient’: Austinites On HOME
Clip | 5m 23sVideo has Closed Captions
Will a land code update fix Austin's housing affordability, or make it worse?
The HOME initiative passed last week by Austin City Council will allow up to three homes to be built on single family lots, aiming to increase affordable housing. Residents on both sides of the debate strongly disagree on whether this will make Austin more affordable, or just push more people out. But they all agree on one thing: the current plan isn't cutting it.
Decibel is a local public television program presented by Austin PBS
Funding for Decibel is provided in part by Texas Mutual and Roxanne Elder & Scott Borders
Decibel
‘The Status Quo Is Just Not Sufficient’: Austinites On HOME
Clip | 5m 23sVideo has Closed Captions
The HOME initiative passed last week by Austin City Council will allow up to three homes to be built on single family lots, aiming to increase affordable housing. Residents on both sides of the debate strongly disagree on whether this will make Austin more affordable, or just push more people out. But they all agree on one thing: the current plan isn't cutting it.
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[Zach] Austin is becoming an increasingly expensive place.
[Selena] I really have had cadets tell me that they are choosing between gas, groceries and paying rent.
[Daniel] And as demand to live in central Austin has gone up, we're finding that the land costs have gone up.
[Amanda] Land is expensive.
[Stephanie] If you're extremely low income, you're extremely out of luck.
[Daniel] The status quo land use policies are not working.
I am here for the HOME initiative.
[Ana] We're in opposition to the HOME initiative We're in opposition to the HOME initiative as currently written.
[Amanda] I am against HOME, the HOME Act.
[Zach] And I am for the initiatives, for HOME.
[Watson] Good morning everybody.
I'll call to order the special called meeting of the Austin City Council.
It is a special called meeting of the Austin City Council to consider what been generally referred to as the proposed HOME ordinance.
[Zach] This proposal would make it legal to build three units where before you could only build one unit.
So where $1,000,000 home would be built today we are allowing three $600,000 homes.
This this is sort of made up math, but, you know, gives you the right idea.
And by doing that, it allows neighborhoods to be more welcoming for people in a lower income level and it reduces housing pressure on everyone around you.
[Selena] Our older medics, they want to be able to build ADU's in the back of their houses for their elderly family members or their adult children.
[Ana] Well, first of all, I don't have the money to build that other unit.
And there's other consequences.
If you build another unit, then obviously your property taxes will go up.
[Amanda] It'll increase their taxes, as well as speed up gentrification, as well as homelessness within our community.
[Nyeka] Austin doesn't have a housing crisis.
Austin has a homeless and displacement crisis.
And this is just going to amplify the crisis.
[Daniel] People are pointing to all the displacement that's happening.
That's under our current code.
The displacement is happening under what's the code right now.
Something's not working.
in Houston, when they shifted to a smaller lot size, the housing was more affordable.
I mean, this is a policy that's been tried and it's worked without the displacement effects.
[Stephanie] We feel like there needs to be much more of an emphasis on affordability.
And I mean deep affordability because people the people that we represent most of them, their incomes are below 15% of the median family income.
And when they talk about affordability, they're usually targeting 80% of the median family income.
Things don't trickle down that far.
[Nyeka] When they say that they're going to make units available for the median family income, Well I don't even make $65,000 a year or $85,000 a year, Our teachers don't even make that, let alone our single parents don't even make that.
So those units and that bonus incentive?
It's not for us.
It's not for east Austinites, It's not for Black or brown people that lived in east Austin and also displaced from east Austin.
[Zach] I think that there's a large disconnect when people talk about affordability.
I think people mean several different things.
When I say something is affordable, I mean it is cheaper than what would be placed there instead.
Allowing market rate development gives us the ability to build more publicly subsidized units, and together they help to make Austin more affordable.
[Daniel] This is not only an affordability policy this is a environmental policy.
I mean, and allows people to live lower carbon lifestyles.
Also, there's a lot of worry about impervious cover that is not being touched today, but in HOME part two, we have a commitment from city staff and they've already convened a lot of environmentalists together to work on how can we be creative to make sure that our aggregate amount of impervious cover does not go up?
[Ana] Until I see it in writing, I don't believe it.
[Nyeka] The magic wand I would like to wave is communities for low-income people.
Communities for the unhoused.
In east Austin.
Not way in Decker Lake, not way out south, where they were born and raised, and where they were displaced.
[Amanda] I would make affordable housing for people that are under the income of $50,000.
Apartments, homes, mobile homes, so that we can all live, you know, within the community and stay within the community, that that would be my dream.
[Zach] I would be building tons of dense, publicly subsidized housing, you know, near transit.
That's what I would be doing.
[Daniel] Checking all the boxes to make sure that not only we're allowing more people to live low carbon lifestyles, but improving our climate resiliency as well.
[Selena] And we need to be realistic about how we can accommodate that growth.
And by just-- the status quo is just not sufficient.
It's not cutting it.
And so I'm willing to try anything that potentially increases the housing stock and different types of options.
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