Austin Habitat for Humanity offers services to aid individuals in their home-ownership journeys. From offering advice through its U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-approved housing counseling program to its homebuilding program, Austin Habitat works toward providing affordable housing options for residents in Bastrop, Blanco, Caldwell, Hays and Travis counties.
Austin Habitat’s Angel Leverett, director of marketing and communications, and Mike Viesca, vice president of marketing and communications, spoke to Community Impact about their latest search for applicants for the homebuilding program.
How did Austin Habitat for Humanity come to be?
Mike Viesca: The organization was founded here in Austin in 1985, so almost in our 40th year, and we're in our 39th year right now, and since then, we have worked on or built approximately 500 houses in the Austin area. We also operate three of the [ReStores] in Austin, and those are the retail operations where people can bring in donated goods. And then with those donated goods, they're sold, and most of the money collected from those sales goes back to the organization to help us build houses for more people.
What role does Austin Habitat play in the community?
MV: Well, we play a very big role in providing affordable homeownership options. That's really the biggest thing that we do, especially right now, when, you know, it's getting very expensive to live in Central Texas, especially in the greater Austin area in the metro; we have houses that are starting at very high prices. But because of Austin Habitat's mission to provide affordable homeownership options, we're able to get more people into homes.
Who qualifies for your homebuilding program?
MV: The city of Austin chart is linked on the website, but a snippet that we showcase is, for example, a household of four people, the maximum yearly income that they can make is $97,800 which is pretty significant when you consider, you know, what numbers look like for us. Back in 2020, that number was significantly lower.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve seen when it comes to housing affordability?
MV: Part of the feedback that we get comes from the clients who reach out and talk to our client services group—they just can't afford a down payment. Houses start very high. Some of them start over $400,000 or $500,000, and so that's something that, even though these individuals and families have professional jobs, they're still not able to afford buying an actual house in the city or within the city of Austin. And so what we're trying to do now with Austin Habitat for Humanity is we're trying to build on a bigger scale. And so rather than build individual homes, we're looking to build multifamily developments, townhouses, condos, so that we can get more people qualified, and we can get more people into a home of their own. And again, these homes are something they would purchase. And this is just a critical need right now in our area. Other cities like Austin are experiencing this, but here in Austin, after you've seen home values rise tremendously, as [Leverett] mentioned, after 2020 there were a lot of people moving from city to city; there were people working remotely, so Austin became one of those places where a lot of people flocked to in order to live in this new world. With that, we saw higher prices in real estate, and it really priced a lot of people out of the market.
You mentioned earlier that you all built 500 homes so far in the Austin area; how many do you hope to build in the future?
Angel Leverett: So, in 2021, we celebrated our 500th home. So that took us from 1985 to 2001, we hit 500 homes, and then from that point to today, we've done 70 homes. So we're just scaling a lot quicker than we ever have before. As an organization, our seven-year target is to provide 1,000 homes through Austin Habitat and our sister organization Home Base, where we partner with builders and developers to either help them in consulting with their affordability projects or take that on, and bringing in folks from our pipeline to fill in their developments that have affordability components with people that are involved with Austin Habitat. So, every year we're just scaling and scaling. Over the next three years, we're going to put about 65 homes in the market each year.
What advice do you have for Austin residents who think being a homeowner is unattainable?
AL: Biggest advice is that no matter where you are in your homeownership journey, contact Austin Habitat. Go to [our website], and just look at our requirements. And if you're on the cusp, whether you're a little less of our income requirements, or a little over, things change from year to year, and so maybe your credit score is almost there. Or, maybe you don't even know where your credit score is. Fill out the form. Let our team reach out to you. Just because you can't get a home today or next month, there might be an opportunity for you six months from now with Austin Habitat.
What are ways people can get involved?
MV: We have volunteer opportunities for people to assist us. If it's not on-site building a home, it's also through our ReStores. We also bring people in to help with that, whether it's sorting through goods or pricing merchandise, that kind of thing. And of course, donations, right? We're always looking for support there because all of the money that Austin Habitat raises is local. So it all stays here. And besides housing opportunities for those who might not otherwise have an opportunity to do so, there are a lot of ways that people can get involved.
