8-acre affordable rental, ownership project in East Austin earns Planning Commission backing

Vecino, Caritas and GNDC plan to make all one- to three-bedroom rental and ownership units at Libertad available at 30%, 50% and 60% of the regional median family income, or MFI. Sixty spaces would also be reserved for those exiting homelessness, and 25 for veterans at risk of entering homelessness. Development representative Conor Kenny said the project team hopes to strike a balance between an open neighborhood asset and a self-contained residential community once Libertad is completed.

“This is very much going to be a family-oriented community, income ranging from $0 up to about $80,000 for a family of four ... and then very much in the way of interior amenities. The public spaces here will be accessible to all the public,” Kenny said.

Around 6 acres of city-owned land at 900 Gardner was set aside for affordable housing years ago. Plans for Libertad expanded last year after City Council signed off on the purchase of 2.8 additional acres at the site for $550,000.

The rezoning request for Libertad passed through the land-use commission in March with broad support, with commissioners hailing its role in addressing Austin’s affordable housing and community needs.

“This is exactly the kind of work that we want to encourage and promote, so I appreciate both [the Austin Housing Finance Corporation] and the applicant working on this,” said Commissioner Awais Azhar. “It moves forward with a lot of the goals that we want to meet for our affordable housing, deeper affordability, requiring continuum of care units, and really providing the community benefits that we need on our current public land assets that we have.”

Commissioner Joao Paulo Connolly noted that the dozens of supportive units for the formerly unhoused represent another step in alleviating homelessness in Austin, an inclusion he said earned broad community support before the March meeting.

"Every unit on this development is not just a unit of housing, it’s literally a life that we are potentially saving," Connolly said.

The plan did attract some reservations due to concerns over its potential to increase traffic and flooding in the area. While supportive of the proposal himself, Commissioner Grayson Cox also asked city staff to seek to line up local infrastructure improvements with future affordable developments as possible, a strategy he said could win over more residents by showing a clear net benefit to neighborhoods where such projects are planned.