One department could lose $350,000 of its proposed budget to help fund a local nonprofit which would educate and assist community members with issues of properties violating Austin law through a new Residents' Advocacy Project.

Council members Greg Casar of District 4, Ann Kitchen of District 5 and Leslie Pool of District 7 proposed the fund transfer Aug. 27 from Austin's Code Department to a currently undecided nonprofit. Kitchen said the nonprofit they choose would currently exist among the community and have legal knowledge and experience.

"There has been a community call for us to rethink the way we do enforcement and code compliance in order to protect the quality of life in our neighborhoods and actually just protect people's very lives," Casar said.

Austin City Council has heard concerns from a long line of community members as a full council and in council committees about short-term rental properties not complying with current law as well as a recent report released by University of Texas at Austin which detailed the pitfalls of Austin's repeat offender program. Casar said these recent events spurred him and his colleagues to make this proposal, which would create the Residents' Advocacy Project.

Austin's Code Department proposed a budget of $20.1 million, an increase from its previous budget of $18.4 million, which included adding a community liaison to the department to increase awareness of issues and how to resolve them. The fund transfer proposed by some council members would not require any extra funding or fees from taxpayers, Casar said.

"Notice of a violation and a code citation is not always enough to get a non-compliant property owner to comply with code," Casar said. "We've had conversations with our new interim city attorney about ramping up our prosecutions and litigations against persistently non-compliant land owners, dangerous properties and persistently non-compliant short-term rental operators."

The nonprofit group funded with $350,000 as part of the Residents' Advocacy Project would reach out to residents across Austin to educate them of their rights and legal options as well as assist them with filing any necessary complaints. This aspect of the proposal will help empower residents who currently feel helpless or too scared to bring an issue to light, Casar said.

New performance measures would be included in the budget Austin City Council is slated to approve in September under the proposal, Casar said. The measures would ensure Code Department and Austin's Law Department are meeting expectations under the proposal.